Overcoming a Poverty Mentality to Reveal the Wealth Inside

I grew up in a working class family in inner city Birmingham, UK. As far back as I can remember we always struggled for money. I was raised with a poverty mentality of being thrifty, making do, watching the pennies and being anti the rich and wealthy – with no awareness of the concept that my wealth comes from inside me.

We didn’t have a car or a telephone as those were luxuries my family couldn’t afford, holidays were a treasured rarity and don’t ask for the latest toys or craze as we simply had to go without. And when my Dad got made redundant for 5 years during the Thatcher years things got really tight. We, however, were lucky as we had a roof over our heads and food in our bellies.

It was difficult and my family had to rely on things like school uniform vouchers and free school dinner tokens that were offered by way of assistance. I always felt the stigma of this at school, I hated that we had to ask for and take government ‘handouts’.

This poverty mentality has dominated much of my life. I must study hard and do well at school so I can get a good job, have nice things and never go without. I must push in the way I work so I can earn enough each week to pay my bills and put some money in the bank.

The worry of not having enough money and the struggle to be able to afford things constantly nagged in the recesses of my mind like a background hum that tainted all my decision-making when it came to investments, purchases and saving cash.

MAKING A LIVING AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MONEY

Once I graduated from university and earned the title of Doctor in front of my name you would imagine that my attitude to money would have started to shift. However, I was up to my eyeballs in student loans and as a new graduate wasn’t very fast or efficient with my skills, so earning a decent income initially was very difficult.

I learned to be super-effective with my time management, cramming in as much treatment as possible when seeing a patient to maximise the return on each one I saw. In this though, I was always stressed ­– pushing, rushing and compromising the standard of my work and level of real care towards my patients.

This affected my behaviour towards myself, my team and my patients: but that story would be best served up in another blog. One thing I did see though, was that by working this way I could make a decent living.

I worked like that for 20 years, driven by the pressures and worries of providing treatment and making a living. The more money I had, the more responsibility with money arose in the form of:

A mortgage,

Car loans,

Credit card debt,

Tax bills,

Owning a business,

Business loans,

Paying wages and

Being the sole income provider for my dental practice and staff and my family.

On paper I am very successful – I own a thriving business, 3 houses, 2 cars, take 2 overseas holidays a year and can buy pretty much anything I want as the money is there in the bank.

Yet… up until very recently I was still carrying that poverty mentality I was raised with.

THE WORRY OF HAVING ENOUGH MONEY… EVEN WHEN I HAVE ENOUGH

I knew there was plenty of money in the bank and my appointment book could be solidly booked for a month in advance, yet I’d be freaking out if a patient failed to attend for their treatment or cancelled at short notice. I’d almost hyperventilate if there was a space in my daily schedule.

I constantly worried about paying the bills and having enough money to provide for my team and my family. I stressed about taking time off – could I really afford to be away from my practice for so long? And I felt the constant burden of the loans and mortgages I was responsible for. Even with plenty of money I still felt like I was struggling to have enough to make ends meet.

I have been working on healing my personal issues for quite some years now by applying the teachings presented by Universal Medicine, but I never made the leap that money, or at least my attitude to it, was something that needed healing too.

In October 2012 I finally made an appointment with a financial advisor. I had been putting this off for a few years even though my accountant had been on at me to sort out my income protection, life insurance and my will.

I sat down at the meeting prepared to be talking about income, debt, assets, etc and was really taken aback when the advisor asked me to put all my paperwork away for now and simply tell him how I felt about my business.

In our meeting I talked about my poverty mentality and much of what I have shared above. To this the advisor replied, “You see your business as a burden, as too much responsibility, and instead of focussing on what you do have and how well you are doing, you focus on the gaps in your appointment book. This makes you stressed. Do you think your patients want to see stressed Rachel or the Rachel who is full of the joy of the life she lives and the success she has?”

“You work hard so you can have enough to take a few days off and reward yourself for your efforts when in fact the way you live and everything you already are is your reward.”

I was totally floored. But what he said was the complete and irrefutable truth and in that moment I felt a massive shift as something deep within me let go ­­– the relief was palpable.

I had been measuring my worth and success against a profit and loss statement and not on who I am and what I offered to my patients and the people around me.

My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.

APPRECIATING WHAT I HAVE AND WHO I AM

That meeting was 8 months ago; during the time since, appointment bookings have remained constant but the takings of the practice have dramatically increased.

My obsession with cash flow and the need to make money had stopped me from fully enjoying my work and being in the moment. I was constantly swimming upstream, acting like a dam across the money river, slowing down or holding up the flow completely. It stopped me fully appreciating what I have and what an incredible person I am.

By letting go of my strangle-hold on the purse strings of my dental practice and focussing on the person who is booked in rather than the gaps in my schedule, I have been able to just be myself with my patients and let my love and passion for dentistry shine.

So now when I discuss dental needs with a patient, they can feel there is no pressure to have the treatment as there is no undercurrent of desperation and money worries driving the conversation.

This has led to a higher level of case acceptance and patients booking for the best treatment options rather than compromising their dental care by opting for a quick fix or cheaper short-term option… and hence a significant increase in revenue.

Who would have thought it?! When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself –and one of these is more income.

But the ‘rewards’ for me go much deeper than this – I have more fun with my patients, my team and family and have found a renewed passion and appreciation for my profession. And most significantly, I no longer feel like I carry the dental practice like a dead-weight around my neck.

When the bills come there is always sufficient money available and plenty left in reserve in the bank, just in case. Taking responsibility for my financial affairs and knowing my family will be taken care of if I get sick or should die is a wonderful gift I have given myself when it comes to money.

But the greatest gift was finding a financial advisor who was able to connect to me as a person and have the wisdom to work with me to break down the poverty mentality that was holding me back from being fully free to be me, to enjoy my life and work knowing the wealth inside.

680 Comments

I really enjoyed your article Rachel. This is precisely what I myself have also been going through. I struggled to accept who I am and struggled to accept that I can be full of God’s love and struggled to accept that if I just simply allow it to be I will ‘have it all’ so to speak in the temporal sense also. Reading your article has made me very joyful to see that you do have it all and have allowed this for yourself. I am much overdue for a dentist appointment at your clinic hehe…

Yes, letting love flow in and out, that is the key Victoria. Life never works as a one way street and should we block the flow of love in both directions it heralds certain disaster in money, relationships, and all other aspects of life. Rachel’s blog offers wonderful insight into how our financial situation is never just about the money.

Yes Jeanette, its important to remember it is not a one way street, but rather the surrender and trust of Gods love and support in all that we do.
When I don’t feel enough I have let go of my intimate connection with the wisdom that comes from within and replaced it with comparison and the result is often a restriction in the flow of energy which can lead to the one-way street or worse a complete traffic jam!

Wow, thank you. I can relate to that, and on reading it, a tear comes to my eye, but despite the sadness that I do feel in knowing that, that mentality has also been holding me back, it feels good to acknowledge it.

Thank you Rachel for providing such an honest, exposing, and valuable blog. I am sure that many of us feel exactly as you did, and struggle with enjoying being who we are and what we bring, no matter what our financial position.

Simon, you have said very much what I was feeling to say. For me to enjoy being me for me, rather than what I do and using a financial marker to value me is huge. Thank you Rachel for sharing so honestly and your resolution to your poverty consciousness; I feel it gives me direction to resolve my issue(s) with money.

Good point Simon, who we are and what we bring has so much more wealth than money could ever have. The key is to appreciate what we do have and as Rachel says, a natural by-product is that rewards start to come to you.

My experience has shown that an opportunity can contract or expand depending on our awareness, and our willingness to go there. In other words, opportunities are always presenting themselves and it is up to us how we respond or react to them.

Nicole Randolph says:November 23, 2015 at 7:08 am

This is a good reminder Christoph, It has been my experience that in openness I am trusting and open to opportunities that I would otherwise completely miss.

Kelly Zarb says:July 18, 2015 at 10:21 pm

Yes Amita appreciating what we have opens us up to so much more and expands our world ten fold.

Simon I love how you expressed this – “the struggle with enjoying being who we are and what we bring” as it is that simple and how much change that brings to our everyday when we choose to enjoy and appreciate how wonderful we are.

There is an old saying ” money makes the world go round.” Unfortunately a lot of us have fallen into believing if we don’t have money our world ‘stops’ which isn’t the case at all; things keep flowing but we ‘ stop’ our own movement, we become held in the poverty mentality. I understand that money does not make the world go round… Love in fact is the key and we have abundance of that, we are in fact an endless source of this richness if we let it flow our world flows!

Simone I agree … Money does not define us, it is us who define and limit ourselves according to and in direct correlation to our own self worth around money, giving our power away to false ‘power’ being money. Yes you can appear powerful when you have money but that is all a temporary manifestation.
It is for us to realise we know our true power comes from within and that costs nothing!

Love your comments, Merrilee Pettinato!
We give money so much power and in truth it does not fulfill us or make us evolve at all!
Money issues create denseness and nervous tension in our bodies, make us worry about the future, leads to working much more than we in truth feel to work when we really listen to our body etc.
Time to disempower money!

I agree Eva – the fact is there will always be someone who has more money and someone who has less money than me, and yet I saw that as a reason to worry that I never had enough or if I did why couldn’t I be responsible with money. the truth is I still struggle and and working on letting go of money defining me, as we have given so much power to it – but as you say – money does not fulfill us or evolve us.

Christoph Schnelle says:March 29, 2015 at 5:56 am

Yes, Simon, this is a great blog. Many of our financial issues are in our head. Once we become aware of these issues – which are really patterns of thoughts – they lose their power over us and we can then take the action that is needed.

Essentially this is a very simple process. What seems to take a lot of courage is to start the process.

How much love you must get from your work Christoph.
Lack of money or the feeling of it has definitely been an excuse
to keep myself small.
This area is starting to be opened up and healed for me also through starting to love
my work and not have the expectation there for more bookings = $.
Thanks for sharing Rachel.

Great sharing Christoph. I have seen the thought patterns that I have had around money and the poverty consciousness that I have held. I am slowly chipping away at it and I find that as I do, things are flowing much more freely.

This is true Christoph, financial issues are in our head. Money is very similar to time. If we think we don’t have enough time/money then we don’t. If we don’t focus on time/money and connect to who we truly are then we are supported by time/money and there seems to be exactly the right amount.

Yes Christoph I agree… it does need a lot of courage to start the process. I can feel within me how I don’t want to talk about money and how capping this belief which I have taken on is. At the same time I can feel how liberating it is to openly talk about money and the support we can feel by doing this… I just simply need to go for it!

I can relate to this Simon along with all the other comments – For years, regardless of whether or not I had money, there always seemed to be struggle or worry – either about having money and having to manage it or being fearful of losing it, or not having money and wondering where the next lot would come from. I realise now there was a constant external pressure that I felt, and only now realise how debilitating this way of living is, because it’s always in the future or the past but never in the present. The more I am learning to be in my body, in the present and enjoy being me just for being me, the more I am experiencing being supported by money and my financial position rather than being ‘owned’ by it.

And isn’t it interesting that our ‘struggle’ to enjoy the simplicity and joy that being alive offers, can be shrouded in ‘being wealthy’ problems as easily as it can be in being poor? There lies the hook, line and sinker.

Absolutely Vanessa, people will definitely feel it! Great blog Rachel – On the surface I am great with money, because I have tracked every penny since I was a young girl, I make the most of high interest savings and zero % credit cards etc but even though I still never seem to have enough. I am now learning that this ‘not having enough’, has a lot to do with accepting who I am and knowing I am worth it.

Agreed Rachel, I too can relate to this being quite similar to yourself growing up, and, over the years have realised that when we start to feel our true worth (not the ‘worth’ tied up with money being a measure of this), then it’s because we have already made steps towards self-acceptance through knowing who we are. Deepening our acceptance, allows for more self-worth to be felt and deeper loving choices made including those related to money/finances.

Thank you Rachel. This is great sharing, I really appreciate your love and honesty with this. I can relate very much to what you describe, it’s so freeing to read your reflection and how you have worked on this to turn it around.

Rachel thank you for this sharing. So very healing and I can feel the hold that poverty mentality has on me as I read. Interesting also to feel the years of excess and then retreat from excess to protect the little left and work hard again to get more $ – the yoyo effect, the reward always being strived for at the expense of the body and being. This has been revelatory, I run my own business and identified immediately with how I run it as a burden, walking with the worry of the need to get more $ in the bank for bills and wages, my own expenses, the list is exhaustive. Thank you for shining a light here – extremely supportive and I can feel how important it is to really trust and enjoy who we are in every moment.

How exhausting! To live with that pressure would feel so heavy. Rather than seeing business as a burden, to see it as a way to bring and be of service to others all of a sudden makes things feel lighter, more expansive, open and free.

I’m learning to embrace the fact that I work and am a University student now, as I can see how I have made this financial situation a burden – when really, I am making some pretty awesome choices to support myself, my career and then others whom I will be practising with and treating .. and bringing all of me and what I learn to them is worth more than anything. It’s interesting that university appears to come laced with a negative view of having no money and lots of bills, but at the end of the day – that doesn’t ever alter who we truly are.

This is a wonderful blog Rachel and great observation Cherise, I realised recently that I had developed an attitude too around the ‘cost’ of study I have been doing and feeling as though money wise I was getting deeper entrenched in ‘lack’, the poverty mentality. This was so far from the truth but it was how I was thinking.
This changed when it dawned on me that it was actually a loving investment I had made. I chose it because I loved it and how it will support not only me but those I come in contact with and serve in my everyday work.
Now that I have finished that period of study it is clear that my investment is coming back to me not just in monetary value but in what I see and feel in myself and others as a result. What was required of me to see and feel this was having appreciation. Appreciation of myself and what I bring in all that I do, appreciation of how I got to this place in my life and not least, valuing it all. This is definitely a work in progress but its value is beyond measure.

What a brilliant article you have written. This being my first retreat, I have learnt so much about myself, and can really relate to what you went through growing up. Just seeing all the students interacting with each other,and the love and brotherhood they all show is so inspiring.

Thank you Rachel Hall for this amazing blog! This has touched on things in my life that also need addressing. I so relate to the need to reveal the wealth inside me and valuing my self through appreciation. Ariana Ray, UK

Me too Ariana. I am finding that as I develop self-worth, through making self loving choices my very ingrained poverty consciousness is feeling less and less comfortable, and my worthiness for more and more so. This is having a profound effect on many aspects of my life, including work and money.

HI Rachel, brilliant blog and perfect timing. I can relate to so much of what you share. The poverty mentality has dominated much of my life too. Lately, I have been pondering over my finances, and then I saw your blog, and thought, I need to read this. Your blog is really supportive and much appreciated, thank you so much.

When l see my business more as a reflection of me, I feel to take more responsibility and accountability. A big challenge for me is loving myself enough to get support where needed and not try to do it all myself, to cut costs.The quality of me reflects in my business. As l feel my worth l can allow more money to flow to me.

This is an honest and beautiful sharing Rachel, which shows when ‘success’ comes along it isn’t ‘it’. As you simply express, wealth comes from inside and it is about loving life, thank you. I loved reading it all!

Great to read such a frank account (business pun intended) of your financial revelations – breaking away from the reward mentality is huge. Can there be any reward as fulfilling as being you? So beautiful to read how your relationships have deepened as a result, Rachel.

Thank you so much for this blog Rachel — I actually avoided reading it for quite some time because it was bringing up my money issues! So glad I have sat down and read it in full — it was worth more than all the money in the bank to feel the true nature of self-worth and true cash flow — as a reflection of how we value ourselves and how freely we allow ourselves to express our joy in what we do.

“To feel the true nature of self-worth and true cash flow as a reflection of how we value ourselves and express” – what great words Rebecca. I have noted this to hold true, that when we value ourselves, we don’t mind paying up for ourselves if/when the money is available (and not on-hold out of a fear in not having enough). In other words money tightness, is only the tightening of ourselves and expression in which sensibly leaves very little space to value. When we open the valve of our expression, we feel the worth in this; that it has a value. And, when we accept this, we know it’s worth paying for. As I value myself deeper, and express more, this restriction lessens and find that it’s easier to accept that “I’m worth paying for” in regards on myself, and also another who may extend their generosity towards me…without feeling to have to then owe anything back. Acceptance. Is a beautiful thing. And a work in progress ; )

Well this is timely .. I have been looking at the things I do that feed my lack of self worth and the way I am with money has been one of them .. thank you for reminding me .. out with the pov .. in with the love ♡☆♡

Rachel I love this sharing, it is very inspirational. I too have a lack of abundance regarding money and feel guilty for making money like it’s a dirty thing, so not so much the poverty mindset like yourself but more the I will always have enough for what I want but no more. So I don’t create a foundation for myself to live from in that certainty like you have created now you have let go! So for me it’s about appreciation and developing this – I am going to put myself on an appreciation programme and see what happens… will keep you posted!

Wow thank you Rachel, your honesty and openness in sharing with us is inspiring. Breaking the poverty consciousness is something I have been working with for some time now. Seeing it all as energy and looking at how I truly value myself is huge. Knowing that true wealth comes from inside and from this place we then magnify what is needed, is truly beautiful.

Thanks Rachel I have struggled with the poverty mentality all my life and I am still working on this but am inspired by you writing ‘My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.’ With much appreciation for the Light you have shone into this dark area.

What a beautiful reminder of self worth and appreciation. I remember I never really worried or focussed on money until I bought a house and took on a mortgage and all the responsibilities of owning a home, suddenly the pressure of earning enough money became my focus. Thank you Rachel for sharing and reminding us all that the true wealth is inside us and has nothing to do with money.

Thank you Rachel. This is making me realise more of what is getting in the way for me and my relationship with money which of course impacts on everyone, and also reminding me to appreciate what I have and who I am. Brilliant.

Yes totally agree with you Elaine. Since reading this blog and subsequent comments I am becoming more aware of the importance of appreciating what I have got and not focusing on the lack. i have to say this is quite huge. By appreciating more I am feeling more freedom and space and I am now more aware of when “theres not enough “mentality kicks in and realise I can now choose appreciation and abundance instead, and why would I not want that?!

Thank you Rachel – a great healing blog for many people I reckon, including myself. Great to expose how we can be caught my money issues and burdens/responsibilities and not even fully recognise we are.

Thank you Rachel and Eunice, I have had my own burdens and responsibilities with money issues. Once recognised, you can truly feel how crazy it has been putting energy in something that is sucking you dry like a black hole. Black holes eat everything… not even light escapes.

Thank you Rachel, I had a very similar upbringing in the UK (I felt like I was reading about my own childhood and I remember those free lunch tickets!), I have always focused on the lack. This issue has come up for me to heal in the past few weeks, thank you for sharing that wealth comes from within us.

Thank you Rachel, this is something that by the title I didn’t think relevant, but could not have been more important for me to read at the moment. Something in my own way that has affected me all my life, where I get my value in life being from how my business, or other things, is performing – and I love the part you mention about people cancelling. It freaks me out every time someone wants a refund on a product they buy! I take it that I have failed and they have chosen to buy somewhere else. Great to read and I will be sure to re-read over again!

A very timely blog for me too Rachel, the reward is ourself and not anything we do, something I have been presented with and struggled to appreciate. I love hearing how your life flowed when you brought greater appreciation to your every moment. Thank you.

Thank you for opening up this conversation. Money is something we deal with everyday and our relationship with it reflects and teaches us so much. I can relate to what you have shared and yet this only scratches the surface of what money can bring up for us to look at.

Awesome Rachel – thank you for your blog. The revelation from your Financial Advisor, your reflection on how your poverty mentality warped all the abundance around you, and best of all the response from your practice and patients since you made the changes are all laid out so clearly and simply. Our relationship with money is such a powerful and pervasive influence, and for you to be really honest with this offers us a great example of how it is a powerful opportunity to change how we are living. It’s a truly inspiring article for someone like me who works as an Accountant to read the full impact our relationship with money has on our lives. Thank you again.

Thank you Rachel, an important topic to explore and share. It is wonderful to feel how freeing this process has been for you, and that your capacity to have joy and fulfillment in your life is in no way determined by the material world.

Thank you for sharing Rachel – it is something so many of us carry – I came from a background where we were’nt struggling for money but still have been carrying the ideal of needing to earn enough to be financially stable etc. I have learnt quite a bit of this which has come through from my dad even though financially he is now very well off, he was brought up with the mentality of having to earn a good living to support the family – the problem is, as you say, you lose focus on the people you are dealing with and it becomes all about the numbers. As soon as I appreciate what I can and do bring to others naturally, I am earning more than enough – writing this it’s like the more I take care of myself and others, naturally the more I am taking care of in all aspects of my life.

Wow this is so inspiring Rachel, what a different way of working. I love where you wrote that you are now “focussing on the person who is booked in rather than the gaps in my schedule” and what enjoyment this has brought to you’re work and things now flow.

Brilliant! Glad I read this as there could be an element of this in me that I have never cottoned on to… I can totally relate to being poor and not having all the stuff my friends had (but being fine with it because my Dad loved us and spent what little money he did have on me and my siblings). But then I did work obsessively with school, college, uni, my career to pass exams so I could do better…. I was so stressed out with it I didn’t even get top grades, or a rewarding career! I do know where every penny comes from and goes though, so am great with what money I do have… Interesting Rachel, thank you, I will have a little ponder on this one…

This is such a great testimony about how our attitude towards something so fundamental to our lives can go completely ignored because it is masked behind what is accepted as ‘success’. If you make a lot of money, how can there be a problem? Well, clearly, if it is at the expense of your well being, there is a problem!
I have had a similar story with money in my life. My family struggled when I was a child, and I remember having to use food stamps. The attitude that I ended up building, was ‘have fun while you’ve got it because you won’t have it for long’ so I would accumulate a small amount or have a small windfall of some kind and then go out and blow it over a short period of time. I still find that creeping in, but my approach to work has helped to change that. I feel less ‘results driven’ about what I do, and bring much more presence. Once I started to do this, things began to change almost immediately, I was given more responsibility and as a result a greater income. Not because I was looking to jockey into a bigger role but because I recognised my own skills and worth and decided to stop hiding and give what I have to give to the world.

I was born just after the war and grew up in a ‘make do and mend’ society, rarely throwing anything anyway developing a skill in unwrapping presents to save the paper and any trimmings! Reading your blog reminds me that whilst I clutter my life with all the ‘save just in cases’ I am not allowing space for the real me to shine.. or maybe even accepting that there is a real bounteous me.

I completely relate to the ‘save just in case’ comment you made, I also often feel guilty if I spend what I think is a lot of money on something and I sometimes would lie about how much some thing cost. I also notice that I always feel really good if I get a bargain, if I manage to get something discounted – then I’m happy to admit the cost. Lots of things for me to look at here, but I do feel they are tied up with my own self worth, what I think I deserve or can afford. This is a great topic, so thanks Rachel for being so open.

Yes Kathie, I can relate to what you share , especially, ‘whilst I clutter my life with all the ‘save just in cases’ I am not allowing space for the real me to shine’. I have done this for too long, and have accumulated too much, just incase. It is time to let go of all this old energy, start appreciating what I have and what an incredible person I am, and know that I have everything I will ever need just being me fully.

This is a truly inspiring article Rachel and one I can defiantly relate to. It is amazing how we are held to ransom by ourselves when we focus on the issues rather then all the glory that we truly are.

Rachel I took so much from reading this blog, it’s amazing to read how you have let go of worrying about money. I also felt strongly the absolute necessity of appreciating who we are, what we have and where we have come from – that true wealth is something we carry within us and can definitely not be brought.

Thanks Rachel for your story of glorious transformation.
Behind what you write is the rarely understood fact (but clearly stated by Serge Benhayon) that money is not a thing in itself but represents an energy, a flow, a means to express and build. Naren’s comment above shows this most clearly: change the energy by your choices and EVERYTHING changes… and then the constipation of our mental constructs begins to clear, allowing the natural flow of abundance.

I love what you have shared here Andrew…I could feel myself all tied up in a knot just reading this blog and comments. The way you expressed has definately helped me loosen some of those mental constraints, thank you.

Reading your blog rachel, was like a re-visit to my own childhood where money was tight, no car telephone or tv and with one annual day trip to the seaside. It has only been in recent years, with the support of sessions with Universal Medicine practioners, that my relationship with money has changed from one of survival to one of abundance, an abundance which lives within. This is still a work in progress, as I feel there are areas in my life where the poverty mentality is still lurking.

I really love your reply to Rachel’s blog Elizabeth. I too felt a re-visit to my childhood where money was always tight. I love your sentence ‘that my relationship with money has changed from one of survival to one of abundance, an abundance which lives within’ . Reading Rachel’s blog is an inspiration to take a deeper look at where I still hold the poverty mentality and where do I concentrate on the gaps instead of appreciating who I am and sharing that with others! Thank you Rachel

Thanks for this reminder about the role we let money play in holding us back from simply enjoying who we are. This is a massive topic and one that influences the choices we make on a daily basis. Great to read how you have shifted the balance between money and self and the irony that the consequence is an upward shift in the balance in your P&L !

This is so refreshing Rachel. The shift in your outlook is super inspiring. So great for a small business owner to measure their success by their relationship with their customers and employees and the joy and passion that you bring to Your workplace. This is so often forgotten. But as you have proven, once this is connected to the rest naturally flows. Awesome.

Thank you, Rachel, for reminding me, yet again, to pay attention to what really matters, the energy I choose to live from, not “how will I survive”. So much of what we do and the decisions we make can be from reasons of self survival that we no longer need, but they have become ingrained in our behaviour patterns. This applies to our whole present culture that still seem to operate from mechanisms it learned early on in humankind’s development. It is time to change and live from the place of love and choice you describe. And as you say, the rewards are great.

Thank you Rachel, Your experience is a great example for us all. I too have been working on my poverty thinking with the support of Esoteric Healing Practitioners and my life has totally transformed. I had a long held belief that I could never afford to pay a decent rent, and have been scraping around driving junk cars to my many part time jobs to make ends meet my whole life, I am 41. My work has become consistent and reliable. Now, I drive a dependable car, I live in a beautiful, supportive apartment and even when extra expenses have come I have had the money to handle it. Last month I was laughing because I couldn’t understand why there was still plenty of cash in my wallet after an expensive month!…I have not “worked on my budget” or finances at all. I have changed my focus and been working on being more loving and present with myself and what I do. Hurray. There is a way to stop ‘blocking the river (money flow) like a damn’!

Thanks for your sharing, Jo! As I am also worried about money all the time this really confirms my inner truth which is saying that there is no need to worry at all and that I will have enough money in the future when I make my purpose in life about love and bringing true evolution to humanity. Unfortunately my thoughts are still often overriding the voice of my innermost but I I realize more and more that it`s just an old energy in my mind that keeps me worried and that this is actually not me…

I thought I’d give you all an update – recently as part of a business mentoring course I was given a free 2 hour session with a money manager where we went over my financial projections for the coming year. She was astounded at how intimately I knew and understood my business finances and how healthy my books look. After 15 minutes she told me that the only advice for me was to keep doing what I was doing as it was obviously working.
Yesterday I had a meeting with my financial advisor as a follow up from the initial session detailed in this blog. He was pleased with progress though not surprised as he knew that the change in how I saw my business would reap benefits on many levels.
His case report “moving from well-to- do to wealthy, take the time to appreciate your success and continue bringing love to your business”.
It is possible to be successful, care about people and have integrity it all comes from living from the wealth within.

“It is possible to be successful, care about people and have integrity it all comes from living from the wealth within.” —R.H.
Let this truth be known throughout the world…and if it is already known then it is time we put it in the fore of our awareness and into practice.
Surely we have proven to ourselves by now that “success” from the outside (absent of the wealth of love from within) without integrity or a care for people is not true success at all.

Thank you Rachel for the update! This is a living testamony that if you choose love and appreciate who you are and what you bring that that is a key to a joyfull life. And that it is about what you wrote… “When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.”

Wow – that is the key: ‘It is possible to be successful, care about people and have integrity, it all all comes from the wealth within’. This is an amazing revelation. I owe my own business, which is increasingly successful (after only just scraping by for years) and I can now see how I need to claim myself within that much more, rather than seeing it as some sort of fluke that isn’t really reflecting anything from me (even though I do actually know that). Thank you Rachel.

This is true Christoph, financial issues are in our head. Money is very similar to time. If we think we don’t have enough time/money then we don’t. If we don’t focus on time/money and connect to who we truly are then we are supported by time/money and there seems to be exactly the right amount.

Absolutely gorgeous Rachel. I can completely relate to this poverty mentality. I grew up with a single mother trying desperately to make ends meet. I was taught from the age of eight how to cook on a budget, how to run a home, how to keep your finances, etc. These beneficial and very practical tools never left me, but they came loaded with an attachment and a fog that I then applied to my life, when in fact what I was creating for myself was nothing like that in which I grew up. For a long time I’d apply these rules no matter what and they would completely take away the true joy of what I could have been enjoying and feeling because I brought the poverty energy in with every choice I made. I always used to joke about my grandmother, and her war time experiences, keeping all the beautiful soap we would buy her in a cupboard for a rainy day. We bought them for her as birthday and Christmas presents because we completely adored her and appreciated her in her absolute beauty, yet she always said she would keep them for a special occasion. The sad realisation was that she never allowed herself the grace to realise that every moment is special and she was completely deserving of them all. The even sadder thing here though was that I was the ‘pot calling the kettle black’ – it is still an unfolding process, but one well worth it. A great sharing. Thank you x

Great article Rachel. I have recently gone back to a job that I was doing about 14 years ago which I really did not like. Now the complete reverse is true-I love my job. Whats changed? Simply knowing and appreciating that I am enough just as I am and that nothing outside of me can ever trump what I feel inside.

This is so healing to read. I am willing to look at many areas in my life to truly heal but for some reasons when it gets to money I have felt in the past, and held a belief, that I shouldn’t look at this because it is just something you shouldn’t do or shouldn’t look at .. how crazy is that!

I love what you shared about “I had been measuring my worth and success against a profit and loss statement and not on who I am and what I offered to my patients and the people around me.” It sounds so obvious when reading it but I find that I have done exactly the same thing all my life and measured my worth and success by what I do and not the concept that my wealth comes from inside me. Awesome.

What I love about this blog is the transformation. From being ruled by your money issues you are now being deeply supported by having a very healthy relationship with money. Which is super cool and is relevant for all of us, irrespective of how much money we have. I come from the other end of the scale – where there has always been plenty of money. But it is fascinating to me to read that many of the issues you had with money are directly relatable, despite being from so seemingly opposite places. But what I am really en-joying, like you is a new very proactive relationship with money. And now rather than it being a sordid, embarrassing, painful or secret thing that so many of us ignore or don’t like to talk about…. I now have a very active and open relationship with money. And it lovingly supports and helps me in making many of my choices. Lots to say on this… I can feel a blog coming! But for now, big thanks and appreciation for sharing this.

Thanks for sharing Rachel I got a lot out of your blog and will certainly look more closely at my relationship with money. I work very hard in the physical sense but rarely have any money left over after everything is paid. So it’s time to wise up and appreciate what I do have and improve my foundation with self and money.

“My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day”. Beautifully written Rachel and very inspiring.

Rachel I love this blog. And I so get what you’re talking about. I also grew up with a poverty mentality and the thing is we were comfortable, not poor but this was never really appreciated. And I’ve taken this into my own relationship with money. I always ensure I have enough money, but spend money as I earn it and don’t truly do long term planning with it, and now reading your blog you’re reminding me to look at this again and consider if I can use money in a way that ensures I have something more than a rainy day fund and how could it be if I actually planned spending and saving on a more long term basis. So really embracing and owning how I earn and manage money. And the biggest thing I feel from reading this blog and all the comments is that it’s about appreciating me and where I’m at, and truly accepting me and what I have on the inside and that it’s not about grabbing things out there to fill me up. Super inspiring.

This is a very insightful blog on so many levels. I love how Rachel you share about the poverty you grew up in, the working hard mentality and the impact the fear of not having enough/making enough money had on the quality of the service you provided. We very rarely make the link – that people do feel if we have an uncertainty and hesitation and this can impact on their trust of the service being provided.

An inspirational blog Rachel, thank you for sharing so openly and honestly. I can relate to everything you have shared. I had a similar experience in my childhood and was very caught up in having to earn money and save it for a rainy day. A mentality passed down from my parents. That’s all I grew up with and once I graduated, my goal was to make as much money as I could. I had no sense about self care, it was about making money, I was never worried how many hours I worked as long as I made money. It wasn’t until my body caught up and the stress was too much and I started to look at my health. For the last 3 years I have been looking at my self, working on self care and appreciating the wealth is from within me. It has made a huge difference in my life. Thanks to Universal Medicine, not only my health has improved but my understanding of the energy with money and the way I work has changed. I appreciate my work and what joy it brings. I have also seen improvements in our business, which is beautiful. Letting go of the attachment to money allows it to flow.

Great comments here on how money can dominate your life whether you have plenty of it or not enough. I can relate here to the stress and burden of running your own business and I have too now only recently started to look at it in a different way – focusing more on how I am at work and just enjoying and appreciating what I do and accepting that I am very good at my job and let the rest take care of itself.

Very timely to read Andrew, it’s easy to get caught into working to make the numbers go up (or not go down!) rather than enjoying, connecting and appreciating the work that I do in the trust that by doing what is needed everything will then take care of itself.

This is so insightful Rachael, I know I have carried the ‘I don’t have enough’ thoughts too, brought up in an era of post war frugality. And I have looked around at people with lots of money, and they often seem to have all sorts of problems that money brings: greed, how to use it wisely, and where to invest it and what to do with it. I used to focus on what money came in every week, which I am letting go of, because I so enjoy work and the way I am living now. I know, when I feel more deeply into it, I will always have enough. It’s lovely to feel how you’re overcoming this old pattern of poverty mentality.

I have noticed that I have a ‘keeping small’ attitude towards money and on occasion, I’ve noticed how it even affects my attitude to how I will spend on small things. This ‘keeping small’ can also spill over into how I store my things, I will squeeze everything into a cupboard to try and make the most of a space, when actually there is ample space. It’s like a game of being less, small, compressed, and it can be in the money area of my life, but then has to be in all other areas of my life equally.

It is true, how we often approach money is of great significance to how we approach life. It is lovely reading your experience of coming back to how you are truly enough, just being you. Without carrying the business around your neck and not feeling the joy of who you are and what you have created. Great to read of the shift and great inspiration to keep awareness of what our relationship with money may hold for us to learn. Thank you

Thank you for this Rachel. I really enjoyed reading this and how in appreciating yourself you cleared the burdens you felt you were carrying. Issues around money are a big one for many of us and it is interesting how our relationship around it affects us. I would say I’ve always been pretty good around money as I’ve had a healthy respect for it, but in recent years I’ve taken the foot off the gas and been a little more irresponsible with it; showing me I feel where my commitment to life has been at. Your article has allowed me to ponder where I currently am at with money, so thank you.

I used to see wealthy people as the ones abusing the system and guilty of taking advantage of others for self-gain. This really was unfair, and a gross generalization that also held back myself from attaining financial security, as I identified with the ‘struggling little idealistic guy’ mentality. Also, I have now noticed that after returning to a field of work that I had left 13 years ago and truly missed, I have honoured what feels right for me at this time, have been thoroughly enjoying myself, and feel like as enthusiastic about it as I was as a young boy (airplanes that is). Almost like magic, our bank account is always at a healthy level, and I no longer feel like we are scraping by and in massive debt. So what you shared Rachel is really awesome and works!

Michael, its truly great as you’ve shown that when we put Love in to our work the flow on effects come back to us in the form of a healthy bank account, very cool. I too had the belief that the rich were the crooks and attributed that to my lack of wealth, now I can see that it is only our choices that get us to where we are. And now I make more loving choices with myself the more i can feel that true wealth comes from within

The words stranglehold and poverty mentality are very powerful ones. Money is one of these things that is always there in my life whether I have lots or none, this blog reveals a lot to me about the control money has over my life. I was taught to be very aware of the spending of money as I grew up and have carried a poverty mentality from that. What I have found in a positive way is when I responsibly spend money on needed items and don’t hold back there always seems enough there to support me.

I can’t say that I have worked through this fully myself. I feel a drive that seeks security and it never seems to be satisfied. As you say Rachel, I know the key is in appreciating myself because through that, I will not need ‘things’ to fill my emptiness. The material world can serve many distractions so that we do not have to feel our issues. If we don’t earn enough to cover the minimum living costs that also reflects something about the way we view our self worth. Since committing to earning a steady income, I have found things have got a lot better, but the poverty mentality is still there. I think sometimes I create debt and financial problems when everything is fine, just so I can stay in that mentality – which is pretty crazy.

I feel this too Jinya. There is something weirdly familiar and comforting in the old pattern of not having enough money. It’s as though I’m saying to the world ‘look I’m not that much better off than you’ so I won’t make anyone else feel uncomfortable. There is something here about needing to fully claim my own self-worth no matter how much money I have.

Great comment Jinya. I am working through some money issues as well. It is very clear to me if I am not living the full of me these issues will remain and if I live the full of me, fulling committing, than these money issues will disappear from my life because they just don’t relate to who I am.

It is a curious thing, our relationship with money. I was struck with the phrase “I had been measuring my worth and success against a profit and loss statement and not on who I am “. I have noticed that it does not matter how much money someone has or does not have, they can still be stuck in this way of thinking and often even the richest people live with a poverty consciousness. Thank you for your article. It raises very powerful points.

I agree Golnaz, money can only buy us material things and if we still have that poverty mentality going on, no matter what we buy it will never be enough. I grew up in poverty, mum was a single parent and sometimes food was scarce so food and money have been big issues for most of my life. Now, thanks to the presentations of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I have a greater understanding of why I had these issues and more importantly an understanding of myself, meaning I felt my self-worth was tied to what I had, rather than seeing myself as enough.

Yes Golnaz, that goes to show that its not just about the amount we earn or is or bank accounts but the consciousness behind it that effects how we feel about money. I sometimes find myself comparing my financial situation to others and putting myself in a lesser position than them. I feel this is all changing now as my self love and appreciation deepens it also extends into my financial situation too.

Thank you so much for your blog. I love the simplicity of your line, ‘My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. ‘ I feel I could substitute money with other things at different times in my life. At the moment I know it’s a full-time job and it’s totally a reflection of me not appreciating myself in full. So your blog is a great reminder for me to fully feel that I am enough and bringing me to a job is enough. Beautiful, thank you.

Thank you Rachel. I think your blog provides a wonderful lesson for all those who believe that all their problems
would instantly disappear if only they had lots of money. You have discovered that what is inside us, has a wealth
that is incalculable.

Thank you Rachel. I particularly enjoy where you say; “By letting go of my strangle-hold on the purse strings of my dental practice and focussing on the person who is booked in rather than the gaps in my schedule, I have been able to just be myself with my patients and let my love and passion for dentistry shine.”

Accepting myself as I am, appreciating where I am and letting go of the question ‘am I enough ?’, has resulted in a more enjoyable life. In this way, I have found there is always enough……..whether its love or money.

From my experience it doesn’t matter if I had hardly any money or more money than I know what to do with both situations, I can feel the unease of ‘There is not enough’. But in truth it is me that has felt like I am not enough because I haven’t stopped to look at everything I do have and appreciate that as a fact. I bring my experiences, situations and feelings to me via my choices – that is something more valuable than the zero’s on my bank statement.

Appreciation is so important. There have been times in my life where I have had very little money and times where I have had more than enough. I can honestly say I felt my life was as abundant with less money as with more. At a couple of stages in my life I didn’t earn enough money to make having a bank account viable, but I still really enjoyed life and appreciated my relationships, family, work and so on… I just had to be a bit more careful about budgeting so I could live within my means. This was never a problem as it didn’t affect how I saw or felt about myself.

What you’ve shared here has got me curious Michelle about my own situation. I would say that I too have found myself to be happy, if not comfortable when having a low income. Currently I can pay all my bills and eat and that’s about it. There has been a focus on everything I can’t do and a stress in needing more rather than appreciating all I do have. Is there a comfort in not accepting the abundance of life that is available to us? Currently I am looking for a new job but it is a struggle, I have chosen to struggle and not appreciate deeply what I can bring to a workplace. With a new job I feel I am being asked to look for and accept a job not in the same way as I always have – from desperation and lacking – yet there is a resistance. Do we avoid greater work and more abundance to avoid feeling and experiencing that we are great and can take on these roles and be a great reflection for the world?

Thank you Rachel for an amazing and honest blog. It has brought to my attention the way I have been carrying “duties” or “responsibilities” on my shoulders for so long, instead of just being in the present, and letting things flow.

I can definitely relate to the poverty mentality Rachel mentioned. I had to leave the world of regular work as a company director with company car etc when my body became too exhausted to continue and I now work as a free lancer, which has been quite a change to the consistency of my income. For a while, and to some extent now, I can very easily go into the poverty mentality, however when I step aside from that and elect to do the things that feel right – it could be buying new clothes for example – then work just seems to materialise or the goods I want to buy are on special offer.
It is lovely to experience this freedom (should I choose it) which has come from the awareness Universal Medicine has awakened in me.

A great sharing of how you transformed your relationship with money, and the resulting benefits as a consequence.
I agree with what you shared in your follow up comment, ‘It is possible to be successful, care about people and have integrity it all comes from living from the wealth within.’

I have found that when we make everything about money we are inviting a large element of control to our lives that feels empty, restrictive and cold. However if we make life about the expression of love knowing that money is simply a tool that can support that expression, then money has the space to come and go, come and go. Yes we absolutely have to be responsible with our money but that is very different from being controlled about it.

I really enjoyed your blog on Money as it is so relatable… Growing up in my family money wasn’t an issue as we were quite well off but I still felt the pressure of not having enough because I didn’t feel enough. The concept that my wealth comes from inside me holds true today and voilà no money worries at all.

What a turn around Rachel! Your blog really does expose the illusion of the poverty mentality and how simply by changing our focus we can open ourselves up to so much more joy in life, not to mention giving our bodies a break with all the stress and tension it causes. It’s beautiful to hear how you’ve turned this around and that this is reflected back to you in every way.

I came from the opposite situation, Rachel, there was always enough money, and although I wasn’t pandered to I always knew the feeling of safety. But I am interested in the anxiety I had in my freelance earning years of not earning enough, and remember that my mother, who ran a business, was always worried about money, having lived through the depression and gone bankrupt. She kept these anxieties from us, but they were still there in the energy she lived in everyday. As a child I would have felt this and chosen to take them in as I did many of my mother’s other anxieties. Now, being aware of my own value, and trusting that I will be given what I need if I care and nurture myself, I do not have dreams of losing my purse any more!

This is so lovely “with no awareness of the concept that my wealth comes from inside me.” that as you say our wealth comes from inside us. This is so true and something I am just learning. Today it was exposed how part of me felt ‘entitled’ to things particularly within my family. I did not have any conscious awareness of this but once it was called out I could feel it in my body and the insidiousness of it. The world or anyone does not owe us anything and it is extremely debilitating to feel this.

I could read your blog over and over again and receive/learn something new from it each time. Reading again this time I could feel the ill conciousness we as humanity have with regards to money. What you share here is something everyone I am sure would love to learn, it also really made me aware that although we are in the 21st century there is still so much poverty and so many people struggling just to cover their basic needs like shelter and food and he ths creates a constant stress. We have so much to heal with regards to this.

Lovely blog. Since I became a freelancer last year, I deeply felt that what was required of me was trust, deep trust in myself, what I have to offer and where I need to be to serve. Interesting enough that intention has had the spin off you write about, I enjoy so much my work and relating to people that indeed money is a pleasant by-product. And interesting enough the more I trust and make it about people, the more money, at the end of the day, is on my account. It feels like I am being taken care of, as long as I show up.

Beautiful share Caroline! I loved reading: ‘the more i trust and make it about people, the more money at the end of the day is on my account’ and as you say as a pleasant by-product. A lovely reminder to trust in myself and what I bring and to make it about people first!

Thanks for sharing Rachel. I can really relate to this. For years I stayed in a job because I felt secure from the amount I earned but I always felt trapped and ironically could never seem to save money. In fact what I did was use the money I got paid to indulge and distract myself from doing a job that I didn’t enjoy. There came a point a few years ago when I made a decision to do a job that I loved for not that much money. It was the best decision I have ever made. Not only do I love what I do but I have developed a sense of appreciation so that when I buy myself something I truly love and enjoy using it – nurturing myself with it. I don’t need to indulge or distract myself because the reward for me is just my job in itself. I even manage to save money now.

There is so much in your blog. I bought into – I’ve got to study to get a good job and was very anxious to do well academically as I always wanted the security of work and money. Growing up I was always in the anxiety of not having enough money to survive and I continued this as an adult. I’ve been very creative and adept at keeping myself in this anxiety.

Your blog is super helpful in showing me that by chasing security I actually keep myself in a perpetual state of insecurity. That true wealth is being all of me with others. When I feel this I don’t need to find status symbols to say I’m a success because I feel connected to the love that unites us all and see we are all equal and there are only choices that I’ve made that result in different outward appearances of a good car or house for example. I know I haven’t made choosing me a consistent choice and allowed myself to be supported in this way which is what your blog inspires.

On thinking about it, most of us are generally caught in the trap that we need a good education so that we can earn a decent salary/living and when we do we have “made it”. I agree with you Karin true success is “I’m a success because I feel connected to the love that unites us all and see we are all equal” I could add that true success is also having a vibrant, well and healthy body and not being caught in the spin of the world. Perhaps we could say that we have “made it” then. If we get to feel this well in ourselves, it is only natural we can be successful in our work and be “well off” in this area too. There is an emptiness on gaining financial wealth without the first focus on “wellness and well-being”.

Rachel it was so lovely to read your article again, there is just so much to take from it. What stood out for me this time was when I read: ‘ with no awareness of the concept that my wealth comes from inside me’. This line in your first paragraph pretty much sums up everything… and the other line that stood out was; ‘ but I never made the leap that money, or at least my attitude to it, was something that needed healing too. Your article brings so many insights and revelations around the whole topic of money and what is really at play with our poverty mentality that we hold. Brilliant, thank you for sharing.

hi Rachel, This is such a common feeling – that feeling of not having enough so we don’t enjoy what we do, instead life and our work becomes a burden to us. I can very much relate to this but I am starting to see that if we make our jobs about people and enjoying that connection with them, then the rest flows, including money. It’s just that we can often have it the opposite way around.

I like the simple way you expressed this Susan. It seems to me that we desperately seek to have more money because we think it will make us feel happier and more secure. Perhaps the feeling of not HAVING enough comes from the feeling of not BEING enough? We strive and push ourselves through work so that we can make more money to compensate for this feeling of lack. I am also starting to see that by appreciating myself takes away the feeling of needing to prove myself. This negates the need for wealth to make my life feel better and the focus of work shifts from being all about earning my living to being about the people I work with. It’s quite a huge turn around.

This is an amazing realisation Rachel: “I had been measuring my worth and success against a profit and loss statement and not on who I am and what I offered to my patients and the people around me.” This is incredible, as NOT ONCE in school was I or anyone that I know of taught to value themselves based on how they feel and the way they live outside work (not how big their house was, or how many holidays they took – but living healthily and with love in their families). The value is ALWAYS placed on your grades, then your job. Thank you so much for presenting a different way!

Thank you Rachel for this very inspiring sharing of your journey with yourself and the wealth of connecting within and your love for life from this.I am also learning the real value of wealth and life is from within and trusting this is an amazing gift way beyond anthing else we can have and the joy of living this way brings a beautiful contentment and flow.

Great Sharing Rachel, thank you. I too am finding that the more I appreciate all that I already have and truly enjoy about my life, the more abundant my life becomes. I love hearing your story of how you came to the point you are today.

I love what you write Rachel – it reminds me of my own “destination syndrome” where I tell myself “once I earn so much, it will be better”…”once I finish so and so, then it will be different” problem is all of those things are outside of myself, and as you so beautifully put – true and lasting change comes from within. PS; I just fell a little more in “adore of you” based on your bio, your expression inspires and delights (particularly the dancing)

I love the connection Rachel brings about self worth, money and work…so much of society tells us that our worth is tied up with what we do and how much money we have. But accepting just how incredible we are, amazing things flow from this. Our self worth comes from our inner heart not outside rewards, accolades, and complements… I have been accepting more and more just how amazing I am and respecting universal cycles and rhythms and the natural support from money comes and this is thanks to the teachings of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.

Well said Zoe, by ‘accepting just how incredible we are, amazing things flow from this’. This is the true beauty of the Universal Medicine teachings as it shares the fact that our feelings of self worth is not only foundational to our daily life and feeds into all parts of our life equally but that all parts of our life require equal attention to detail so nothing is left behind.

Thanks Rachel for such an open and honest writing about a topic that I’m sure many of us can relate to. I too have had this mentality for many years and in recent times have found a shift with it. What I have found is that ‘buying’ (pun intended) into ‘the pov mentality’ (as Amber so nicely put) is a way that I have kept myself being less and in the victim mentality.

Rachel, your article was amazing to read on many levels. My parents both grew up with very little in the way of material wealth but worked extremely hard to eventually get it. My reaction to seeing how hard they worked for it and what I perceived to be the misery they lived in, also caused me to choose a poverty consciousness (something we have talked about together). My lifestyle choice was to be a surf bum and never worry or care about money or material possessions (except surfboards of course). Later I realized this was really a mirror image of the same poverty consciousness! Truely taking care of our finances must be done without fear of lack or want of more.

Hi Rachel, I love this blog, it is so revealing of many things. It explains so much why people choose making money over caring deeply for the people they work with or treat. Like you said: ‘I was always stressed ­– pushing, rushing and compromising the standard of my work and level of real care towards my patients.’ It is not that you did not care but because of the huge work and money pressure you just could not let all of that love and care you have for other people out. As a future dentist I find this blog very inspiring, also what to look out for… the work pressure at university alone is already huge! This blog shows that there is another way for sure.

You have precisely expressed my relationship to money, dentistry and myself in this blog.
I have done a considerable amount of work on myself and shifted so many hang ups around money and my worth. I was in a desperate state when I found Universal Medicine, working hard and getting nowhere. It is so different now, but still there has been a remnant – a very powerful one that keeps my struggling, uptight and checking my financial statements fretfully.
And that cancellation panic, I relate to it completely.
And then the “fix-its”: budgets, vows not to spend and have fun…hmm, that’s always fun.
All of these things circle around the issue of our deep love, appreciation and value for ourselves.
I have also come to understand that it is OK, fine, and even natural to have enough to live a beautiful and plentiful life without fretting over the bank balance.
Thank you Rachel for your ever stunning honesty and inspiration.

Hi Rachel,
I was an orphan at the age of 14 and had to grow up and take care of myself from that day on. Luckily I had an allowance that came from my father’s pension fund, so I was not left with nothing. After that allowance stopped, I had to take care of myself with the constant feeling there was no back up for me in case I couldn’t make it. So making money for me was equal to surviving, which gave me the feeling I had to fight for everything and be grateful with crumbs.
The reality is I never really had money problems, yes sometimes I had more, sometimes less, but I was always able to pay for everything and more. But, as you say, the energy underneath was always one of lack.
That has changed only recently, as I appreciate and love myself more and value what I do in my profession, this underlying stress has gone and more jobs come to me without me having to ‘struggle’. I love my work, take all of me to it and there is no more energy that makes me feel less or unworthy to make money for what I do.

Awesome blog, thank you Rachel. I can feel that I too have a poverty mentality and how much anxiety this brings to my life. It was very inspiring to read your blog and how you have come to accept that you are enough. I love how you expressed “And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.” I feel the absolute truth in these words. Thank you dearly.

Thank you again Rachel for this blog. I loved it when I read it the first time and now reading it again I can feel even more deeply how our self worth is so related to our financial situation. I’d love the name of your financial advisor if you feel to share…?

oh my golly gosh! This is me! I always feel like I have to work hard to save and at times I feel like a mouse on a wheel when it comes to money and so I never seem to make what I need. I know it’s because I walk around with an idea that I will never have a lot of money for two reasons a) I am an artist – and it is the job of the artist to struggle (crazy idea) and b) that I will never earn as much as other people when working in other jobs, even though I am just as skilled as the person earning the big bucks. I feel that much of this comes down to my lack of self worth which is slowly being examined and deconstructed. Thanks to the support of Universal Medicine practitioners, I’m getting to the bottom of my lack of self worth issues.

I had an experience yesterday with observing the children playing Monopoly, that the fun of spending time together playing a game gradually degenerated into emotions of greed, despair, frustration and anger being displayed.

This is not unlike our response to real finances in the world when we measure our worth and therefore interactions with others by the size of our bank account.

To accept that by living who we truly are and bringing that to our everyday tasks and services for humanity, we will always be taken care of financially, is a tough ask in trusting – one that I have been feeling the tension of not fully accepting and allowing in my own life, but ultimately knowing that where the next dollar comes from need not be dictated by the emotions of greed, despair, frustration or anger.

“My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.”

This statement here is so what I needed to hear. What’s interesting is when we focus on the fact that we don’t have the money we need- it’s all we think about. So for me even when pay day came and there was enough money to pay the bills and survive another week, it was still my mentality that I have to survive, and I don’t feel that I ever will have anything left over to spend on myself or lovely things I can do for myself. I have realised also that I have identified with the fact I don’t have enough money for this or that. Even though I felt embarrassed about it, there was also an identifying with it, as the person who never has the money for it..
I look forward to addressing this feeling that I dont think I will be happy unless there’s enough money in the bank to be comfortable. Of late I have realised that there is no need to stress, of course look at it in depth but don’t let it consume you because I did and it felt like this was how my life would always be. Which is just not true… Who I am is because of my choices. So because of that I am choosing to stop identifying myself as the person with no money.

Rachel , your blog is so timely, having re read it again, “When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself”. Just what I needed to read, I really need to appreciate myself and enjoy what I do, rather than get caught up in the having to do energy. I seriously do love my job, but the doing sometimes gets the better of me, as I forget to appreciate myself.

Awesome blog Rachel, thank you for sharing that by appreciating the fullness of ourselves and feeling the inner richness we already are can change how we feel about money and also how money will then affect us.

I was raised in a very frugal environment, where so much was seen as excessive or indulgent. Reading this super honest article I am prompted to really take stock of my attitude toward money itself and how I may well have been operating in a knee-jerk reaction kind of way toward my childhood perceptions.

What you share here ,Rachel, is remarkable: that anyone, of any income, in any profession can be strangled by a poverty mentality which can permeate and taint absolutely every aspect of their life. I love your sharing how appreciation for yourself and your business completely upended the millstone you carried around your neck for so long….and I would love the name of your adviser so I can be fully free of mine also!

Our relationships with money I feel is very telling on how we feel about life. My relationship has changed over the years. It appears that for me that it is linked deeply with self worth, there is a mind set that I have taken on that says, “lets all be equal, you deserve no more than anyone else, in fact be less because then you are even more equal” I believe deeply that we are all equal but something has got a little twisted along the way and it is about how much I am willing to shine and how much I appreciate what I bring to life. I am learning that there is no reason for me not to enjoy the benefits of an increased income if I commit to being me and living life in full.

We all have a responsibility with money, it is a tool with which we can live our life. But we can let it also rule us. I remember saving up for a lengthy overseas trip many years ago and the saving, the closely and obsessively monitoring my money ruled my life and my enjoyment of my life. Thanks Rachel, your article has given me much to consider.

Thank you Rachel, I love re reading this so many gems of wisdom, I particularly like “You work hard so you can have enough to take a few days off and reward yourself for your efforts when in fact the way you live and everything you already are is your reward.” What a beautiful reminder to stay present and en-joy and appreciate what I am doing in every moment- thank you Rachel

This is simply a beautiful sharing Rachel- thank you. My favourite part was when you said ‘But the greatest gift was finding a financial advisor who was able to connect to me as a person and have the wisdom to work with me to break down the poverty mentality that was holding me back from being fully free to be me, to enjoy my life and work knowing the wealth inside.’
it sounds like you now do for and offer your patients, what your financial advisor did for and offered you.

I can so relate to your blog Rachel, I too used be to bound by the chains of seeming lack in the finance department and measured myself against that. For me it was the bank balance decline that sent me in a spin and I would actually work out ways to pay my bills so that it didn’t mean my bank balance was going down. But the more I did that, the more it actually did go down, so I would have to keep telling myself, ok so the balance is here now that’s okay, as long as it doesn’t get to …….. I’m okay. Thankfully through another’s sharing, I could feel that this way was linked to my lack of self worth and accepting less for myself. Now I see it as just another loving part of my rhythm, my living way and a loving exchange in return for my purchase and so my bank balance has gone up as a reflection of my own loving support.

This is such a supportive article Rachel, I can feel how with my own business I can talk that its not all about profit but about people – meanwhile under the water my legs are constantly scrabbling around making sure that we do not sink.
Appreciating me and the opportunities we create and connect with thousands of people a year has not been at the top of my list – P+L has been albeit veiled and held at arms length. I will certainly adopt this understanding and allow 2015 to blossom and bloom.

Rachel your sharing is so healing. I have read this blog many times but today the following has really stood out: “You see your business as a burden, as too much responsibility, and instead of focussing on what you do have and how well you are doing, you focus on the gaps in your appointment book. This makes you stressed …” Whilst I don’t have a business I can relate to every word in terms of how I work in my day job as the burden is exactly how I’ve felt which leaves me feeling heavy. Someone once said to me that if there was a white wall with a small back dot, you would focus on the black dot. We often seem to have an ingrained way of ignoring what we do have and focusing on what we don’t have and that includes valuing who we are. The appreciation aspect of what you have shared is so important and I intend to really focus on this during my working days and beyond. When we appreciate, there is such a richness that grows with everything that we do and I always feel a renewed love of life. Thank you for the reminder.

The way you described yourself as ‘swimming upstream’ really stuck with me Rachel. This captures so well the fact that there is a natural flow to life, which at times it seems we use all our powers to resist. So crazy. It is beautiful to read how you have come to connect to your true wealth – and how that adds up to something so much greater than finance. As someone who has also been under a belief of scarcity for much of my life, what you share is inspiring. Your words are a rich and valuable reminder that life is naturally abundant and truly, so are we.

Thank you, Rachel. Reading your blog, I had to be very honest about my own relationship with money and do a stock-take. I found myself caught in this belief that life is about living with integrity, and all the peripherals in the form of material/financial rewards follow as a reflection of living a life in such way; so striving for financial success and using the money as the prime drive for work is not necessary. Well, the first part is half-baked, and the second part was somehow misinterpreted and found comfort in laziness. Ooooh, that was sore.

I love your blog Rachel thank you. My lack of self worh has contributed to my poverty mentality. Understanding that indeed our wealth is already inside us and choosing to live from that abundance makes for a bountiful flowing life.

Great Blog Rachel money can have such a strong hold over us and our relationship with it. To be able to look at your poverty mentality around money and see how this ran through your life, seeing your business as a burden rather than enjoying what it brought to you is a fantastic healing. I have learnt that the more I let go of any attachments to money and what it can bring the more life flows.

Hi Rachel, this is amazing, wealth is so much more then just how much money you are earning. It’s like when you started appreciating yourself and who you are that you realised how much you actually have. When we don’t know who we are we think we’re seeking more money but never will what we have be enough….
With knowing who we are is where we can also be more responsible with our money as well, learning more and more about it as I grow….

Thank you, Rachel, for a truly inspiring article. Much of what you write resonates with me and your journey has given me a new understanding of how I can look at my feelings around money differently, thank you. By the way, you have an awesome financial advisor.

It is very important on how we connect. To many and how it flows in our lives. When we start to take deeper responsibity with our relationship with money, the energy around money changes this is my experience and the flow starts to change and becomes more supportive.

A blog written for me, it seems, which I saved to re-read again and again. I loved your observation “When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income”. That is such great reminder for me. That if I focus on my ‘inside’, things will change on the outside as well. I consider this pure magic, so much different than focusing – with regard to money – on focusing on generating more money. So when I focus on appreciation my wage or income will then start reflecting my level of appreciation I have for my self. How great is that. Great reminder Rachel, thank you.

Gorgeous Rachel, I have also felt recently to book in with a financial advisor, especially after attending “You and Money” By The College of Universal Medicine, as I can completely relate with this ‘poverty mentality’- and how restricting this is. It is awesome how your life changed as you stopped focusing on money, but appreciating yourself, people and time spent together. True liberation it feels like. Thank you for sharing another way with money and life.

Wow, thank you Rachel great Blog-such an important point you describe. I grew up in a family with enough money not to worry. But because of the war and the poverty and loss of wealth they experienced they lived with poverty mentality. This has dominated me much of my life and made my relationship with money not very pleasant. Because it sits always in the back of my neck when i was about to spend money no matter if i had enough money or not.
Money and appreciation for self is very much linked! Since i not only work to earn money but to bring me to work i have enough work and money not to worry anymore. But i can feel there is a deeper level of appreciation possible to fully drop the ideals and beliefs of the poverty mentality. I am about to buy a new car and am still hesitant to spend double the money i normally spend for a car, even if it feels right.

Dear Rachel, I read your blog for a second time now, a few months now after the first time and it is again a revelation to me. The poverty mentality and struggle is a known theme to me. But what stroke me in today’s reading is: “My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more.”
The internal struggle that I am not good enough or not worth, reflected itself very much in my money issues. But since appreciating who I am and what I bring, and that life can actually be joyful – also my relation to money has changed. I am far more self-responsible and so is my relationship with money. If there arouses an issue – I always reflect back to me and where I was and how I chose to be with me in that moment.

Your whole article spoke powerfully to me not just about money, but about all areas of life where I struggle. Your statements “My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more“ and “my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day”. You also share that as you appreciate those who have booked in with you rather than the gaps in your diary, and you enjoying your time with them, that you naturally have greater income, and that proves that when we allow a loving flow in our life it all works beautifully. We just need to heal what we are putting in the way.

I grew up with not much, having to go without, cheap clothes, etc. when I started working I was the same as well, scraping to get by. I was once told that ‘job’ stood for ‘just over broke’, but my initial attempts at business didn’t change anything. As I learnt to be more responsible about what happened to me and not blame it on anyone else, things started to change. I accept where I am at financially and know that my business success is a direct reflection of where I am at. Which simplifies things – I just have to focus on who I am being and the rest seems to be taken care of.

“You work hard so you can have enough to take a few days off and reward yourself for your efforts when in fact the way you live and everything you already are is your reward.” This is amazing and true but not something we learn when we are young. The way I live and everything I am is my reward, I will take this with me and let you know how I go.

Thank you Rachel for presenting this topic to me, how important it is to look at all aspects of our life, and the money aspect is one we easily tend to forget but is so important to have a healthy relation with. I can share the same background with you, being raised in a poor family that resulted me in accepting the poverty mentality. Although in my personal adult life I have never had any money issues, I do regularly have the stress moments that I do not have enough, that I feel myself not worthy. I am now in the process of appreciating myself more and that also includes the money aspect of life. I can now allow myself to feel how amazing I am in the way I can make money and that I am good at it. Money becomes now more integrated in my life and the feeling grows that it is there in abundance for me to be enjoyed in full.

I have just enjoyed re-reading this blog as the first time it inspired me so much, and since that first reading I have really developed heaps in my relationship with money, work – and in my enjoyment of the abundance of who I am. Today I got a whole other layer of understanding out of reading it again, and so the inspiration continues! Thanks, Rachel.

Thank you Rachael for your very honest blog . I can relate to the poverty conscious mentality. I never realised I had it until I started to see me and value who I am, I had somehow felt some satisfaction that I was able to look after my family and make it on very little money even though there were things we had to go with out, as long as the basics were covered I felt we were ok. Thanks to Universal Medicine Teachings I came to be aware of that consciousness in me which was related to how little value I placed on myself . As my self love, value and worth grows and I am opening up to being more ,and letting go of that consciousness, more finance has come my way enabling me to express more of the beautiful person I am.

“my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day”. These are very wise and insightful words Rachel. When reading your blog I could feel the contraction I have around money matters. I am inspired by you to appreciate and value the wealth inside of me and to rid myself of the poverty mentality.

Me too Shirl. I really got to start appreciation what money I have but that my wealth is not determined by a number in the bank but the wealth that comes from inside me through the loving choices I live every day.

Great article Rachel, I have experienced this too that the more I accept and love myself, the easier the money and other wealth-related things flow. This has especially become really obvious for me over the last 1 1/2 years where money related issues have really shifted . Thank you for sharing.

Just by honouring the moment you bring out the greatest wealth. I love feeling the space this brings and the true service this is for the client and for yourself. What you share is deeply true … and if we think of life by money and time instead of connection and space, we miss out on what it can truly bring which is a richness of connection, joy and fun lived with everybody

Who is your financial advisor ?!
I know many people, including myself who stresses or has the thought of money in the back if their mind. It’s because it seems like its fleeting. In your bank one day and out the other. I just realised now that if the flow of money is consistent and considerate of wether what your buying is needed or supporting you then the struggle wouldn’t be there as you’d know the money’s doing what it’s meant to do.

Rachel I could feel the burden within me in regards to how I also feel about money as I was reading your blog. By the end I could feel a shift, even though I have money and a job I love, I can still let myself get consumed by making sure that I have enough. Thank you so much for the gorgeous reflection.

Thank you Rachel for showing me how my relationship with money was impoverishing me. I grew up with the proverbial silver spoon and was constantly burdened by guilt of the inequality of life. Money made life ‘comfortable’ but it did not bring joy, I only started to find joy when I found the richness within me of who I am.

Spending money to support my requirements is an on-going challenge of weighing up my worth versus spending reserves and I realised it all comes down to trust – trust in knowing that when I feel it is truly supportive to spend money on myself or a family member, the funds will be there for this event and the process will flow. Conversely when I feel rushed or hindered by the process it stands out for me as a caution that perhaps I am not truly honouring the feeling I had and am over-riding for personal gain/satisfaction over being supportive of myself or the family.

Building this trust within myself is a matter of consistency – wherever possible honouring what I feel is going on in me or with the process.

Awesome sharing, Rachel! I too had this poverty mentality and I still catch myself in certain situations where I am still holding it. Its super exhausting to live that way and everything is a burden and a task that needs to be done. I just recently let go of the belief of having to be this super efficient power woman that can take on any project and work 24/7. The constant pressure of earning money is huge and as you share, the moment we let go of it and enjoy what we do and also allow us to have space for ourselves the dynamic changes and we realize that there is another way.

Oh, Rachel, what a timeless article. What you write and all the comments are gold. I am working on my poverty mentality for the last fourteen years. Some blocks I was able to remove. But it seems that reminding ones are huge. I understand how our self worth is effecting our income as well as our ideals and beliefs block the money flow. But what is more important is appreciation of me and what I have. Thank you for confirmation.
I like your turnaround, Rachel, from money making to paying loving attention to your patients, connecting to them. Honestly we all can feel the intention behind service provided and you made awesome step forward to change it into love.

Terrific blog about money and poverty consciousness, I grew up in the UK with that too, it was medicine for my soul and being this morning.
It’s so true what you say, and very healing for me to hear your shared experience, about appreciating what you have and focusing on enjoying what you do rather than the money, and how the income naturally increases. A big thank you Rachael.

Thank you Rachel. This has made me ponder on my attitudes to money. One thing I do know is that I have been very controlling of my life (people, family ) and this also involved money. Once I was able to understand why I needed to control things I was able to let go and allow life to flow more, hence I became more relaxed with money. I loved when you said Rachel that true wealth is inside us. So true.

It really is a horrible feeling to worry your self senseless about how much money you have, what you can and can’t do, or how much money you will have left after buying something and there are many more questions we ask. However it’s just to stressful, and I would much rather feel that the true wealth that is inside me.

Wonderful blog Rachael. It challenges ones relationship with money and societies attitudes to success an wealth. I love how you discovered “When you stop focusing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself and one of these is more income.” This is a beautiful learning.

Thank you Rachel for writing this so honestly. I think that many people can relate to feeling constantly insecure financially even though there is enough money (for them). “Appreciating what I have and who I am” is really the key to say good-bye to one’s “insecurity”.

I totally relate to this Rachel, “The worry of not having enough money and the struggle to be able to afford things constantly nagged in the recesses of my mind like a background hum that tainted all my decision-making when it came to investments, purchases and saving cash.” And I love that you have found another way of living with yourself and with money and are sharing this with us – there is much to be inspired by here. Thank you.

There is so much that hangs around our relationship with money and it carries from one generation to the next if we allow it. I grew up in a family where we were not rich but always had enough. Even so there was a poverty consciousness, perhaps even fear of going without. Therefore even though we had all the basics and a bit more, I never felt we had enough. I have been becoming aware of these thoughts that reflect my feelings of not enough over the last few years. It feels wonderful to let them go and know we are enough.

Wow Rachel – this is such a big healing for me as I have lived like this also – poverty mentality has owned me totally it has had me in a world of worry of never having enough. After reading this is can now free myself from this. What a read! Thank you.

A brilliant blog Rachel in which you shine so beautifully as you share your unfolding relationship with true wealth. Very inspiring. I love how you say – ‘And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.’ When we connect to this truth there is a joy that does not need any form of financial success or achievement, to be celebrated. This is who we truly are and really how we truly want to live. For no matter how financially successful we are unless we appreciated the love we are and that we are enough, there is no real joy in our lives. A great reminder of what is true – thank you.

Thank you Rachel, I can so relate to the flow of money and income being related to appreciating myself. I feel only recently I have turned things around in the way I live and work. I just started two businesses and with both I provide a service that I just love providing. My focus is on bringing myself to my work and appreciating where I am at and therefore able to do what I do. I can’t wait to allow myself to blossom in my business and for my business to blossom equally.

Katinka,thank you for your light in this subject. As I go on with my day today (and everyday) I am going to bring a deeper focus and awareness to appreciation of myself in each moment with openness to all.

Thanks, Rachel. There is lot in what you have written that mirrors my own experiences with poverty and money. It makes a lot of sense and you have provided me with a platform to rethink my relationship with money.

Thank you Rachel for this amazing blog so full of honesty and wisdom.
It has never occurred to me before that my strong need for financial security might just be a result of not taking care of myself and focussing on the difficult things instead of seeing all the magic that is there every day.

Great blog, this defiantly popped a few bubbles I held with money.
Thank you, this has giving me some space to see my relationship with money.
Even though practically having enough money to pay the bills plus more, there is still a thought in the back of your mind that you don’t have enough. Meaning that you now flagged you have had a short fall ad then you have to pick up a few extras hours to replace the missing income you would have acquired.

Rachel, you describe so well how patterns and fears formed in childhood can continue to haunt us in adult life. You’ve shown that when we focus on lack rather than Love, we can so easily miss the inumerable gifts and treasures we carry within ourselves.

Thanks Rachel, I have been putting off the financial advisor forever, this inspires me to rethink this and align to the richness within, rather than the scoreboard in the bank. We can be free from the social burdens that are self imposed – magnificent!

Thanks for this awesomely honest sharing Rachel. Talking about finances and money is something often considered ‘taboo’ – your honesty here is so refreshing. We all have a relationship with money, so it will be interesting to feel deeper into my own based on what I have read here today. Thank you!

Thank you Rachel for exposing the depth of how money ideals can block the flow of wealth. This was very healing to read and many points have been offered for me to understand my relationship with money.

Rachel that’s a huge shift that occurred for you, because you chose to open to seeing life a different way. All my life I’ve seen people with loads of money and yes, they are ‘poor’ inside, stressed, unhappy and just as screwed up as anyone else. Even when they make their lives look good on the outside. I too was graced with a financial consultant who took me to basics – we only got onto money in the last few minutes of the session. Most of the time was spent on my relationship with my parents, and shifting that 180 degrees with some surprising new perspectives that have changed my attitude to responsibility with everything not just money. Good ‘value’!

It seems so simple but does not occur to us, value self and enjoy what you have to offer, rather focusing on the fear of losing what we have achieved or built. What a beautiful lesson in self-worth and abundance, thank you Rachel.

Rachel your blog is an invitation to me to look into my relationship with money. I can relate to the poverty mentality and as you so clearly put it: “ my internal struggle to be enough and to be more”. Your blog is as valuable for me as your meeting with your financial advisor was. It is also an invitation to appreciate and enjoy me for who I am and what is already around me and enjoy what I am doing instead of focussing on the result. And for me it feels important to trust that there will always be enough to support me.

Wonderful what you share Marjo. It is about trust that there will always be enough. As long as we allow ourselves to be supported and let the support fully in, we will experience just how much support there actually is, every moment.

What an amazing shift that has happened for you. I can relate to focussing on the lack rather than the abundance. It is wonderful that you have brought up the issue of money as it is one that most people prefer not to discuss. Thank you for opening up the discussion on a subject that is relevant to us all but avoided like the plague.

“You work hard so you can have enough to take a few days off and reward yourself for your efforts when in fact the way you live and everything you already are is your reward.” what a power-full statement. This just blows all of the anxiety of living with that ‘poverty mentality’ out of the water. Such an inspirational blog and one that I will continue to read as I progress through University and start to work professionally, as money is something I have always been anxious about as well.

I too grew up in a family that struggled with money. I was constantly told to work hard and earn money. I was constantly given the message that success means being seen and acknowledged. Apart of me really wanted the recognition and success in terms of money but I also felt that this was immense pressure to put onto myself. I never like any pressure especially if I can avoid it. I chose a career that I would enjoy and money was not a driving force behind it. I am only starting to look at my relationship with money and this blog is a great one for me to reflect and look at how money really affects me and my family. Very interesting as I have never really paid much attention to this, Thank You Rachel.

Great blog Rachel- I can relate to having to struggle with little growing up, as my parents migrated from Italy after the war, had no money and had to start from scratch. My parents motto was “only by working hard will you reap the rewards”. So I also took this on , and always worried that I would not have enough. This resulted in me feeling burdened & exhausted in my body.
Thankfully things have changed for me now since starting to appreciate myself more, what I bring to my work , and feel and know that I am enough. Our greatest wealth is indeed within us all.

What a weight off your shoulders Rachel! It’s amazing that one old held belief can shape your entire life if you allow it. Now that you have let this go, and made it about love first, everyone enjoys the riches of more of you!

Another awesome article Rachel, thank you. The relationship between income and self worth the poverty mentality is something worth unpacking, as I too have discovered it reveals itself in every aspect of the way I live my day… even the way we express/talk. Appreciation of self is on par to putting money into a bank account. Both add value and worth. And consequently, both build your superannuation, ie your health and wellbeing in body as well as funds to support yourself in elder years.

Thank you Rachel for your blog. It has reminded me that I can become overwhelmed by my fear of not having enough money and that this can block the flow – it’s as if I make my fear a reality by constantly turning it over and over in my mind. When I can let go and trust that I will be OK (which I always have been – I have never not had food on my table and clothes to wear!) everything in life has an opportunity to support me. I need to be respectful of money and to treat it with respect but not to create a world where money is God.

“My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day”.
Awesome sharing on a very relatable topic. My lack of self worth has been driving me for a long time. And earning enough money made me feel good about myself. But I could never earn enough, this emptiness inside couldn’t be filled with money. Letting go of that is sometimes still a work in progress, but it has changed my life a great deal.

Thank you for sharing so honestly and openly here Rachel. Money is such a taboo subject for so many people and it is rare to read such insights. I was really blown away by the way you described the ‘burden’ you felt with all your success. Reading this I realised that I have actually repelled money from my life for fear of the ‘burden’ or jealousy I perceive that it brings.

It has only been recently that I could even look at an expensive car on the road and appreciate it without judging the owner as a ‘rich snob’. I am realising I have a lot of false beliefs about money but I feel richer having read this.

Wow, what a great blog, just what I needed. Just by reading it I feel a shift in my body and how my relationship with money (not earning enough at the moment) has totally to do with my lack of self-worth and thinking that I am not enough (and what I bring). Thank you for this inspiration.

The story of Rachel is showing us how we can still feel poverty even we have money in the savings. True richdom is in the heart and when we live from our heart the money can flow in the way that reflects our love.
If we stay contracted, holding back then there is either no money or it stays stuck somewhere with the owner who has a lot of control and stress about the money.This also poverty, just the other side of the pendulum.

This is the second time I’ve read this now and I know I’ll be reading it again! It really helps me see my own money issues and how much I focus on what I don’t have. It feels like a real sickness when I think about my anxiety around having certain things and never having the money to get them. What’s so obvious is the checklist that is attached to money. The house for me is HUGE! I’m 34….I should have a house by now….etc etc. I haven’t worked consistenly for 10 months now, and for the past year I have been living with my parents. The amount of times I look back on the last year and beat myself up for not having saved all the money I could have while I have been working is astonishing. A week doesn’t go by when I think of the ‘missed opportunity’ in money saving, and then I calculate what I could have had by now. Constantly living in the future and the past, never in the present, which stops me from appreciating what I’ve actually achieved in this time in terms of where my self worth is at, how I’ve dealt with a break up and the many things I’ve learnt in that time which is huge because my perspective has gotten clearer and clearer and without it I would never be able to start accepting me. And acceptance of me will naturally lead me to whatever money I actually need.

A beautiful blog Rachel. I have read this blog this morning which is so timely for me. I have recently been going through changes in my employment and this has brought up for me the poverty consciousness that I lived in for many years, and still feel occasionally. The pressures of being the single source of income for my family. The provider. The changes in my employment have been a blessing for it is not just getting me out of my comfort, but is showing me that it is not so much the work I do. It is more about “who” I take to work, how I work and what I leave when I finish work. I am finding that if this is how I live my life, everyday, then the work is there.

Rachel, this blog highlights a huge issue, – our relationship with money. We all have it, a relationship, but what quality does it have, is the question. I too grew up in a family with very little money, where not one single penny was spent unless totally necessary. We also had a roof over our heads, but just the bare minimum in regard to food, light and heat. I’ve had to learn to be generous with myself, I’ve looked to my friends for inspiration. I feel there’s more to heal in this aspect, but by you expressing the following: “My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.” I am letting myself be inspired to go deeper. Thank you for sharing your amazing story, and reminding me that it starts with: “APPRECIATING WHAT I HAVE AND WHO I AM”

Coming back to re-read this blog I can still relate to a lot of what you have shared here Rachel. This time around the stand out point was that appreciation of our own worth, what we have right now rather than focusing on everything we seemingly lack. When I look around me, at my situation in a material and from a health stance I have a lot that supports me now in life compared to a couple of years ago, yet the penny pinching mindset does slip in at times still. And it’s not even about the amount of materials I have – currently I am moving house and the discarding of any belongings that I feel I am no longer attached to or no longer need I don’t feel as if I am going without, if anything the less I take with me the more free I feel. That inner quality of me I am learning to accept as enough – everything on the outside is a bonus.

Rachel, thank you. Money and in particular when you are in business can be a taboo subject but you definitely did not hold back. I recently have appreciated how thoughts of ‘not enough’ or ‘what ifs’ surrounding money can hold us back. When this is relaxed it all flows as it should.

Very true Melissa, we tend to focus on what there is not, what we cannot do, what we are not and what we don’t have. Why not turn that around and only focus on who we are, what we do bring and what we have and really appreciate this in every single moment. Only writing it down feels so yummy and powerful, this will be my focus of this week!

This is a super powerful blog that is well worth reading twice. I’ve recently realised that we can set ourselves up with our money for it to be how we subconsciously want or need it to be to either struggle or be in abundance. In that it’s just as hard to calculate exactly how much to spend to stay just out of debt and strugglin, but not enough to feel abundant.

Great insight shared Rachel – “When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.”
I too, grew up in a household with very little money and had to go without certain things.
So growing up I was keen to make my life “better” than my parents and not struggle for money.
Hence, studying hard, working hard, saving hard…all for the future. But there was no room for me, appreciating who I am, and what I bring to those I met and work with . Thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I am learning to catch myself when I feel I am going into a poverty mind mentality. I now know I am enough and worth celebrating.

Thank you Rachel by re reading your blog today this line stayed with me ‘I must push in the way I work so I can earn enough each week to pay my bills and put some money in the bank.’. The pushing is something I experience in my attitude towards work too and I also can relate this to my upbringing, not so much in poverty as you describe but in the sense of ‘you have to work hard, you won’t get it as a gift, you have to do do do and do the best you can’. Otherwise I would be in misery. With all of that I have put a lot of pressure on myself. To appreciate who I am and that I am able to work from the joy I feel inside me (that has been and is always there) is what I am discovering and playing with day in day out! Yes, I am enough and more!

I love re reading this Rachel and all the comments it has given me a fantastic opportunity to look at held beliefs I have about money.

What you say here is pure gold ” When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.” This is so true Rachel true abundance comes from appreciation.

This amazing story that you share, Rachel, is really rising awareness. Although I had enough money all my life for everything I wanted or needed, I found myself constantly calculating: can I afford this, where can I buy the same thing a little cheaper… Reading your article is making me feel the enormous pressure I was laying on my body and the total lack of joy. I used it as a trick to disconnect to joy although I was swimming in an ocean of love.

It is so true that there can be this huge pressure to work hard for the money and material or lifestyle reward that this gives in return. But what would happen if we made work about the quality of our relationships with each other?

Great blog. It shows the effects of when we think it is all about money, about surviving. I used to have the same mentality. Strangely enough when I started a business for myself two years ago, I had a deep trust that it would work. Why? Because I had and still have a deep appreciation for myself, what I have to offer and….that I love to work with people. Actually, I have taken on the focus that it is not about money, but about where I am needed. I don’t have to ‘do’ much, but just listen, feel and respond to what / who comes to me. What has been the biggest miracle -in a way- for me is that with this focus, money -as a side effect- comes in sufficiently on my account. That gives me more confirmation that I don’t have to worry about money, but keep on focusing on people.

Rachel this is a a very important blog for many people out there. Why we do things from the place of we want to earn money and what actually drives us? How exhausting it is , when it comes from a need or anxiety, and actually disrupting a natural flow you describe here beautifully. I realized, appreciating my work, claiming my selfworth which leads to the feeling of being enough relaxes everything. Since I let go more and more of the belief I have to reach any goal or be better than last year, I am supporting myself to be more connected in general. Not imposing to others with any need feels great in my body and surely other feel this.

Thanks for sharing this very revealing blog , what do we drag from the past into every day that holds us back from the awareness of who we actually are and what the day offers us in full and that we are equal in grandness to all there is .

It is interesting how interlinked everything is! Great sharing Rachel and it is immensely more loving to enjoy what you do rather than feel worried and fixated on what you earn. The wealth is inside us as you so beautifully show.

“Who would have thought it?! When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income”…
So, my understanding is ~ we begin to appreciate who we are and what we do, let go of worrying and focussing on our money issues, take responsibility for our spending and learn to trust the process and our lives become abundant, in more ways than one, sounds good to me Rachel!

I smile when I let go of the strangle hold my largely unconscious fears have on the flow of money and I suddenly find a special offer available, a free car parking space, am offered extra hours at work.

So often this is prompted when I decide to buy something which will nurture me at some level, not just the ‘value’ option because it’s the cheapest.

Rachel I think there are so many different beliefs and mentalities around money, it really is a very convoluted topic. I have always struggled to spend money on myself, even though I have always worked and had money. I have wondered recently if my hesitation in spending money actually influences the way that it comes to me, in that even though it comes to me, it is not in abundance. If I began to spend it freely with a real trust that it would be replenished would that then ensure that it would indeed flow easily back, I wonder ?

I can definitely relate to this blog in a big way as I am sure so many can. For me it goes to the core of the issue, that when wealth is made an externalised thing, it is never enough. When wealth is internal – I can appreciate so much more and it naturally expands outwards. Yet truly making wealth and internal commodity, means truly breaking the cycle of placing creating, or doing, before the quality of being that I can choose at any given moment. The big trap is, I need to do, in order to be – be it exercise, food, work etc – I launch into the activity of life, in order to get a result. Instead when wealth comes from within, I go into activity already feeling complete. This simple understanding, when lived, has been a a great support towards deeper responsibility to myself and towards living life to the fullest.

What I have learned the fear to run out of money is mostly just a trick to distract us from something else. For me this something else has been taking responsibility for my life. The more I am prepared to take my responsibility, the simpler my life does become and the less there is space for things like the money-issue to creep in.

Yes beautiful, Michael – I love how you say ” The more I am prepared to take my responsibility, the simpler my life does become and the less there is space for things like the money-issue to creep in.”

Hello Rachel, a great insight into your life and how it was to how it is. I am in business as well and see almost identically the things you are saying. The thoughts that come in to take you away in a sense from what you are doing. For me business ia a great reflection for me to ‘see’ how things are really going. I agree with you that appreciation is the key to building anything. If you are honest like you have been then things will open up, thank you Rachel for the inspiration.

It was great to revisit your blog Rachel, and check in with where I am at with regard to money since I let go of needing to see my bank balance go up to feel worthy or enough. I am finding now that my responsibility has turned to looking at what I spend my money on but not from a fear base, simply from a truer base of what I truly need to buy at any one time, and feel where a need may have come in to distract me. It’s lovely to come from a much freer place with money, after all, it is simply another part of the all of us and our expression.

Very frank and honest blog, and one that I got a lot from. As you said Rachel, it is not about money or no money, when we live life constrained by the fear of not having enough, it envelopes us and all that we do. Poverty consciousness is not solved by simply acquiring money.

“Poverty consciousness is not solved by simply acquiring money”. This is so true Adam, I have seem many people with plenty of money in absolute fear that they do not have enough. Rachel, a great blog that exposes that fear that most people run with which is the fear of not being enough.

Well said Adam, indeed many very wealthy people have a poverty mentality. What I feel most from Rachel’s blog is that when she let go and understood that it’s about her, the joy of being in work shone through and it became about being with her clients. Money is the play-out of this, not the end result in and of itself and too often we get stuck in seeing money as an end result, but we don’t consider the quality of how we’ve been. It’s about the quality of how we are in all we do.

Thank you Rachel for your very informative and insightful blog. I have had problems feeling worthy of having money because I have not had work that earned much money and then had a long time out of the work force while I raised my family but also I didn’t feel confident in applying for jobs because of this. Consequently I have had a very love hate relationship to it. When I was left some money I was quite responsible with it but for some reason it didn’t last for long and I was back to square one. I feel what I need to take away from what you have written is that what ever I do to earn money or If I receive a gift of money, is that I am truly worthy of this even though I have not earned it the traditional way. To learn to accept that I am equal to all others and accept gracefully what I have and enjoy the money I have responsibly and lovingly!

What a great learning for me here Rachel. It is so easy to be “run” by money and to feel that there is never enough. This “poverty consciousness” can be so destructive that it stops us enjoying the very richness of our daily lives.

Rachel, I read this quite a long time ago and now reading it as a business owner, I absolutely get what you’re saying: “When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.” I’m yet to 100% let go, but the more I do, the more things pan-out well or better than that. I certainly trust more. Reading your blog is great perspective for me, thank you.

What I get from this blog and many others on this site is the truth it brings to my body. I actually feel it as I read it -in this case a holding back in my body, like a tension, around money, being enough as I am, feeling the joy and amazing love on offer around me and within me and yet also feeling what patterns of thinking and behaviour I go into to limit my acceptance and appreciation of what is on offer. I could go into more detail about what my body is showing me, but the point is, it is all there, like a book to be read and I love how these blogs often open me up to the page that is needed at that time.

I really enjoyed reading this blog Rachel, you have highlighted so many important points around beliefs about money. One thing I have noticed since finding Universal Medicine is that my cash flow situation is so much healthier and I tend to worry less about money. I have an inner knowing that when I’m looking after myself I will be provided with adequate funds.

Joe you have just brought to my awareness that I feel the same with having a healthier cash flow. The more I commit to myself the more I feel how supported I am in every aspect of my life including money.

Very enjoyable and interesting post/life story Rachel, I can relate to aspects of this…the ‘fear’ of not having quite enough money, such that even when I am ok or flush with cash, have found it difficult to be that free or easy with it, not really seeing or appreciating this excess, always thinking there’s a need to have more. This is definitely an upbringing consciousness for me. The fact that all this (issue with money) is a direct correlation to how we see ourselves and how we live life is huge consideration. I am not living how I was all those years ago, my life is completely changed, I have contentment and a richness of heart, and live a wealthy life with a flow. It’s amazing how the ‘poverty trap consciousness’ can try to infiltrate when in fact the door is already closed, and that mentality recedes to no longer affect and infect. Awesome realisation. And healing too Rachel, thank you.

So true Zofia, how we live our lives and how we feel about ourselves is reflected directly on how we are with money. I have found this to be absolutely true every time. In the strength of Rachel’s blog has revealed there is still much to learn about myself.

Thank you Rachel for exposing the self-imposed burdens of striving to have enough and losing sight of being enough. The comment by the financial advisor is one to treasure “the way you live and everything you already are is your reward.”

What i have recently come to understand that when we do not trust, appreciate and accept the awareness and inner knowing that we have we cap our flow, flow of energy, flow of money. We bring in energy to self sabotage, by sucking our energy and we will go round in cycles, until we clock what is going on. The key for me was to know that all is well and all is provided for and that all i needed to do is to accept and appreciate that I bring great service to humanity through my work.

Wow Rachel thank you — this is great inspiration at a practical level of overcoming a poverty consciousness that can plague us as well as bringing home the truth that when we appreciate our inner wealth which is far more precious than any money can buy, our relationship with money can change dramatically. We no longer use money to ‘fill’ us, we use money to truly support us.

What am important blog. I don’t think there are many who would say they didn’t have issues around money. Either disrespect or anxiety. Just brining attention to it helps us to look at our own patterns and bring more balance. Thanks Rachel.

‘I was constantly swimming upstream, acting like a dam across the money river, slowing down or holding up the flow completely.I have felt and feel this same struggle in my life, accepting who I am, my grandness is the key to stop this game.

This is so very insightful – we can indeed carry a poverty mentality around with us even though things are actually okay and then they become a lot more than just okay as we shift our focus and presence away from the struggle and learn to appreciate everything we already are and bring to others and the world.

“You work hard so you can have enough to take a few days off and reward yourself for your efforts when in fact the way you live and everything you already are is your reward.”
I remember working night duty on a busy surgical ward as a nurse for 6 months, so that I could save enough money to take a holiday. Only then did I feel that I was worth taking a break. The poverty mentality consciousness is something I am still working on- knowing that I am enough already, and trusting that I will be provided for when I focus on the quality of how I am in my work, and not on the number of shifts I do each week.

Great honest blog Rachel. For me the struggle with poverty thinking has been huge in the past. Connecting with my authentic self and enjoying being me for me and what that offers to those around me is the greatest richness of all.

I very much related to your upbringing in the UK, Rachel, and it was just about identical to my own in terms of the attitudes towards money and to the horror of even possibly being supported by the welfare system; even now I feel to write that we never went on welfare because I can still feel the stigma of that, as you refer to in your blog.
Hand in hand with this goes the poverty mentality and I also catch myself sometimes going into an unnecessary worry about money and there is no need to do so. Awesome that you located an advisor to support your unlocking of this debilitating mentality which is often seen as ‘normal.’
Relating it back to its origin of your relationship with yourself is inspiring.

Having grown up in the UK I also carried with me a poverty mentality around money, always afraid of not having enough. It was awesome how you described letting go of the lack and poverty mentality has actually allowed you to offer better service and as a result make more money, thank you Rachel.

Thank you Rachel. I very much enjoyed reading this, you have a very matter of fact and fun way to write.
It shows so clearly how we can still run in the same tracks, maybe in a nicer and posher wagon, but still on the same tracks, while thinking we have freed ourselves of the old ways.

Yes, it seems to me when I have concerns about money, it’s because I have lost the ability to trust and be in the flow of life, the more I get caught up in the worrying the more it stops the flow.
When I confirm the wealth and abundance I truly have within, then it will naturally attract the same from without, so I will never go without!

At my nephew’s school there is definitely an encouragement to work hard and play hard and those two activities are in different boxes. It seems from talking to other school children this way of thinking is quite prevalent. Here you show how there needs be no such delineation nor does “hard” have to come into it. I welcome the day when we can all drop these false pressures we put upon ourselves to live in the extreme and can come back to centre and truly live a balanced life from there appreciating the richness it brings.

Rachel you have offered some real gems in this blog: focussing on and appreciating what you DO have and on the person right in front of you. I can relate to your experience of managing a practice and a family and feeling it as a burden, worrying about how to hold all the increased responsibility. It is inspiring to hear your process and how you have grown to hold all of this with ease, trust and grace. It is also a reminder for me right now to continue building focus and commitment and gracefully allowing myself to receive support rather than feeling alone.

Thank you for sharing this chapter in your life Rachel. It is amazing how childhood impressions can dominate our whole lives, or that habits persist long after the reason for starting them is no longer there.

Thank you Rachael for being so open to share your situation with money and the poverty mentality that remains as a reality unless it is addressed. Our relationship with money is an important subject and impacts on how we live and relate with others through it. I can relate to your story very much.

This is absolutely massive Rachael. I can relate to what you have written and can feel the evil loop that gets you in it’s wheel. When we forget about appreciating the present we can forever chase the rabit down the wrong hole. Great to reread and feel appreciation for what I offer and feel that’s enough.

“My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day. ” I so relate to this Rachel. I too have had a tendency to focus on what is not good enough, rather than appreciating who I am and how far I have some. Accepting and appreciating me (and others) is the way forward.

This is such a revelation for me especially ” My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more”… it makes so much sense. ”Appreciating what I have and who I am” is key but I struggle with the consistency of this. It is great to be reminded as reading this blog deepens my awareness into the importance of appreciating me.

“My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am.”
This is gold Rachel, and as someone who has always struggled with money I need to remember this, thank you.

Your entire blog is just amazing Rachel, but especially one sentence as Tim is saying “My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am.” is pure gold. So true.

This is a great article Rachel, I can relate to what you have written here ‘I have more fun with my patients, my team and family and have found a renewed passion and appreciation for my profession.’ I have been finding this with my work recently, since I let go of my self-doubt and anxiousness around my work and instead trusted myself and appreciated the qualities that I do bring, I have been enjoying my work so much more and I have been enjoying connecting with the people that i work with, rather than seeing work as a struggle and stressful.

I used to be known, in my ‘youth’ as the only hippie with a steady job…. I always worked, and yet had a skewed relationship with money. We were fortunate enough many years ago to have Deborah Benhayon look after our book-keeping, and of course its not just the books that get into order, Deborah’s diligence and attention to detail, both energetic and fiscal is of enormous support.

It is quite inspirational you were able to take a step back and re-evalute what is the most important part of your practise. This being your patients, not their wallets. I worked for several years as a dental nurse in two different busy Sydney practises and I noticed the drive for the maximum high financial returns with the most minimal amount of time spent on any appointment (notice the word appointment not person/patient) was the number one goal in these dental practises and it felt like this was a hot topic of conversation/competition amongst dentists when it came to going on professional development weekends and social get togethers. When every one is doing things a set way around you and strongly championing it to be the way to do things, it takes real courage to stand up and claim it is not working for you and explore a new way.

I agree Toni, it is truly inspirational to read and feel the depth of what Rachel has shared with us through this blog. I know this too, in being caught up in ‘earning money because I have to pay my bills and I am the provider and to identify myself with the mount of money I make’ instead of enjoying my work and bring everything of me to it, knowing that I am bringing great service to humanity and letting the money I earned from it be a natural result of me doing this.

Appreciation of oneself and the service we bring has a huge on my health and well-being, but I hadn’t considered it in the relationship to my work and income.
Thank you Rachel for sharing your experience with this, appreciation of oneself is certainly good medicine.

Love you article Rachel and I can so relate to it. Family members I grew up with had that same attitude and I saw how it impacted on their lives and my own. Because of this I addressed it in myself and it changed my relationship with money as well as how I am in life with other people. I can feel from reading this blog there is another layer for me to peel away as even though I always have enough money to do what ever I need to, I know I could be earning more money then I am. This will happen the more I claim my power and what I bring to humanity.

Most businesses is run on the basis of making money more than care for their clients or what’s on offer. I have walked into shops and I could feel the desperation of them wanting you to buy something. It’s great to know there is a a truer way to live and run a business that does have results not only joy as the true reward, but financial support as the by-product. Thank you Rachel for sharing your story.

As a customer it is really ugly to be imposed upon to buy something – even if you want or need to buy that something. Finding your way here Rachel sets the standard for true customer service – and it starts from within. Thanks for sharing.

Wow Rachel it seems for many, literally every choice we make in life is based on an underlying fear of not having enough. So I love how you showed us here the power of turning this philosophy upside down. Then the way we are living is our true earning, not the other way around.

‘Then the way we are living is our true earning’, This is awesome Joseph. As a society we have coined the term ‘earning a living’ and we are encouraged to go out and do that, despite the way we are in doing that. For many it is ok to be unhappy with the jobs we do, as long as the money is coming in and the bills are paid. If the way we are living is the way we approach our earnings it does turn it all upside down and brings a beautiful responsibility for us to find what it is that truly brings us joy, and bring that to all aspects of our life, including our working life. Life is so much more than just having a job to pay the bills.

I reread your blog today Rachel, and it really is a brilliant exposé about money and our relationship to it. Reading that ‘my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day’ struck a deep chord within me today and made me realise I need to step up in the self appreciation stakes and allow myself to make that connection. Thank you Rachel.

I used to feel the money was almost dirty and I wanted as little contact as possible from it, as if only bad things and bad people had money or wanted money, this was how I felt as a young person and the residue stayed with me into adulthood. As though if you lived a ‘good’ life money would not be a concern to have. However, I am changing, I know there are issues concerning the way money is used, but I am also learning that it is okay to work and gain money and to still build a life, based in love. I am learning that being poor is no more a sign of ‘virtue’ than wealth is a sign of ‘greed’, it is all about how we live.

In my experience- the moment we make it about money- quality is out the door. Just like when we become stressed, presence and true quality is abandoned. “That my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.” Thank you this is just pure gold.

Thank you Rachel,
i too have learnt that wealth is not only money, there is a huge opportunity for us to appreciate where we are at.
thank you for sharing your experience with money, it shows how ideals and beliefs can hold us back from seeing the bigger picture. And sometimes it just needs the wise words of someone who is observing this to show us a different way. What an amazing accountant!

What you share with us Rachel is pure gold. So many of us have issues with money. Never thought for a moment I had a problem with it – being in denial, what a cover up! My partner has always been a great saver and watched carefully how he spent and saved for a rainy day moment. Over the years this crept into my way of behaving with money. The tension this brought into my life became very apparent very recently as my earnings have somewhat decreased. Reading this awesome blog brought about a moment to STOP and truthfully feel and honour the fact that I already have my pot of gold. I am enough already, in your words “my wealth comes form inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day” To live in this way and to trust that all that I need to move forward in my life will be provided. Thank you Rachel. Reading this blog this morning was no coincidence!

I already have my pot of GOLD, I love that. And yes, to trust that all that I need to move forward in my life will be provided is huge. I sometimes loose touch with that trust but when it is there, it feels that I can handle everything and I feel the amazing support of life and God.

Rachel, this level of stress that you have experienced in your doctor practise must be something very familiar to many other doctors who are trying to earn a decent wage through this work. But what strikes me is that the work of a doctor is all about assisting in the healing process of another person’s body, which cannot be rushed or have a price tag attached to it. So, how wrong and out of sync is the current system that encourages doctors to be in such a state of stress/distress when treating people?

Thank you Rachel, I have also realised that in the way you earn your money, you will also spend it like this. Let’s say my attitude is to work hard and stressed and without true connection to myself or my clients – in the same way it happens that I spend my money. This is just the flow, unless I stop and introduce joy and the full of me into my work and the appreciation of what I bring. Money is a big reflection of how I work and live my life.

That is so true, Sonja! We get caught in money issues so often and so easily. We don`t want to spend much money for things because we have the feeling of not being worth it or we worry about the future instead of feeling our divine equalness to God and to trust in God. If we are really connected, we don`t worry about money. Definitely something to ponder on…

There is much here in this super blog about our relationship with money. Tears came to my eyes when I read ”Taking responsibility for my financial affairs and knowing my family will be taken care of if I get sick or should die is a wonderful gift I have given myself when it comes to money.” This sentence struck a chord with me. I can feel how supporting this is for Rachel and I am inspired to go deeper within me to address what’s there to be felt and looked at, which I am ignoring. Thank you Rachel for sharing.

”… my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.” This is gold and it is great to be reminded especially when there are so many living in poverty consciousness. It is huge for some people and it can creep in with me at times although I don’t want to care to admit it! Rachel’s blog is a testament that we can all have a relationship with money that truly supports us.

Beautiful sharing Rachel…who would have thought that such a simple act as appreciating oneself could bring so much positive change! You have inspired me to take a deeper look at my own finances – thank you.

It is great to stop and consider whether I am living in reaction to the mentality that I grew up around in relation to money. I love what you have pointed out here Rachel “the concept that my wealth comes from inside me.”

Money, and the flow-on effect of greed, run our world these days however we as a humanity are not doing well living this way. Rather than constantly striving for something outside of us which only exhausts us, what if we were to look inward at the wealth that has been there all along, as Rachel has done…our world would be a very different place.

Looking inward, trusting and following what feels true for us allows so much magic to happen. I have 2 part-time jobs, and recently I was offered an extra day in one job. By dropping a day in one job and taking up another day in the other, I calculated I would be earning a few hundred dollars less, and because of this I deliberated for some time as to whether this was a wise move – that belief of poverty consciousness was running rife. It didn’t work in my head but when I felt the potential it was a yes, so I went ahead and made the change, knowing it was true for me to do for a reason I didn’t yet know. And it feels amazing – I feel more passionate and dedicated to both jobs, and feel I have much more to offer, and the irony is…I’m earning more money than I was previously! My head can’t work it out but my heart and my body are thanking me every day I go to work.

I am crazy about your article Rachel. How wonderful that your focus has shifted from living in fear that you will be short of money to loving your job and offering your patients all of you which really is the best you can offer.

Wow I love this blog Rachel. Today I’m really getting, ‘My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more.’ I’m getting that when I focus on the wealth of who I am this makes all the difference. Certainly something to ponder deeply within how I’m living. Thank you.

I can absolutely relate too. I was born into it and have tightly held on to it my whole life. I find the correlation you offer between poverty mentality and undervaluing yourself very interesting Karin Barea. Applying this to myself and other people I know with similar money issues I have to say it rings true across the board. Working on developing self-worth as the underpinning key to shifting poverty mentality and financial success is brilliant and as many people have discovered actually works.

Yes Karin what Rachel says about linking appreciation and money is a revelation! I feel so pleased to have read this blog, now if I have stress about money I will take it back to appreciating me and all those around me. Appreciation really is key and something we can always develop deeper.

I can absolutely relate to the poverty mentality Rachel. I grew up as many did with parents who experienced the depression and can feel how that infiltrated it’s way into my thinking so much so that even now that I have enough money I can still at times feel the panic of ‘what if’? But as you’ve shared it’s appreciating what we already have and also deeply appreciating who we are – focusing on this instead of the ‘gaps’.

I can totally relate to what you present here Rachel, i too run a business and coming from little money the hold fear has on us through money and the fear of not having enough is a common thing with most people. By allowing all the great things and the livingness to be the first thing in our lives we can allow all the rest to fall into place.
Your blog has allowed me more space to ponder what i still hold onto and i can work on this when the fear pops back up.

By not taking full responsibility for my finances I run with a lot of anxiety and stress about money, this impacts on my body and my relationship to my family and friends. When you said that you had been working on your personal issues but hadn’t extended that to money, something clicked for me and I felt I cannot ignore this important area of my life anymore, thank you Rachel.

Growing up in the UK and seeing the struggle and worry my parents had with money, instilled a poverty mentality in me. Even though I have enough money now I still run on worrying about ‘what ifs’, this way of being holds me back and is a constant niggling stress.

I love what you are sharing Rachel. There are so many points I can relate to. I also worried a lot about money in my life, although I had enough money most time of my life. And I especially like your sentence “When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself”.

Your blog is awesome and makes complete sense Rachel. I can relate to how you described growing up as a child with money worries, and how this does have an impact in adult life. It’s quite a parallel how our sense of self worth and value is tied up in our relationship with money. Your blog has been very inspiring, thank you

Rachel you have taken appreciation of oneself to a whole new awareness. As you have described in this article about money, this appreciation and confirmation of ourselves flows into all areas of our lives. In turn this appreciation is reflected to others so they too make choices that are even more caring and honoring. How beautiful is that!

Rachel a brilliant blog. Your financial adviser is very wise, and there is much wisdom in what was delivered. I have found that when I let go of not having enough money, there always seemed to be enough, without me worrying about it. Money doesn’t define anyone as being successful.

I love coming back to your blog Rachel as it really resonates with me.
I love and appreciate your wisdom and reflection.
Still today I struggle with that poverty mentality; not towards others; but towards myself. It is certainly a work in progress as I slowly build a deep love and appreciation for myself.

Worrying about money is something I have down all my life even as a child before I was even earning and had bills to pay! Slowly I am learning to let go of this more and trust in myself and that actually I have never needed to worry as what is there to come in does and not always in the form of money, as we can be supported in other ways. Learning that money is linked to appreciation and self worth is a whole way to look at any money issues. Thank you Rachel for an inspiring and practical blog.

Hi Rachel, I love how much you expose the constant struggle that can happen with finances. The constant worry, the constant battle that can happen on the inside. How much stress and ill-health occurs from this in society. It would be crazy to do the stats.

Beautiful what you share. Your whole way of being with money was related to you not appreciating you in full, the amazing woman you are. Your Self Worth. It makes me wonder about a family situation we are in. The question could be: what is our relationship to ourselves/to life instead of the money itself?

Wow Rachel – thank you for sharing your story with such honesty and intimacy – a very enriching tapestry of life. You have uncovered so many important issues that I’m sure we can all relate to in our own lives in some shape or form.

When I read “You work hard so you can have enough to take a few days off and reward yourself for your efforts when in fact the way you live and everything you already are is your reward.” , at first I felt the joy and appreciation intended but then, on further reflection, I felt the sadness of how many people around me are missing out on the ‘real reward’ because of the way they choose to live – not excluding myself at times.

I can really appreciate this point too Tamara because it reminds me of the times when I have rushed to get through stuff so I can have some wind down time (in fact for “wind down” read “checking out” time). What quality am I in when I have pushed and rushed to get to the TV? To live connected and listening to my body in the commitment of all that I do feels amazing. When I do this I do not feel the need to check out, but to stay with myself and continue to make loving choices that support me. In the acceptance of this there is no sadness, but a deep appreciation for being and all the choices I have made in the knowing too that this supports others in making those choices for themselves.

I can relate to this Tamara. I started off loving my job, but then ended up resenting and hating it. I felt it was the cause of my ill health and stress. All I wanted was for each day to end and then pray for the weekend. Holidays were my big escape that always ended in me feeling depressed because I had to come back to work. What I have learnt is that it was my attitude to my job that was causing me the stress. Now, with a new appreciation for myself, and the way I now choose to live, I love my job (and its the same one.)

Thank you for sharing so openly Rachel. It confirms what we do know deep inside, even if we can’t connect to it, that money and riches do not make us happy nor define who we are. It is amazing that once you let go of the stranglehold you had on your business and yourself, and just relaxed into who you truly are, that everything just started to flow beautifully. Abundance is certainly all around you!

Wonderful inspiring blog Rachel. “Who would have thought it?! When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.”- I too was initially surprised and have been finding this. Instead when I focus on the lack of… I create unnecessary worries and stress for myself and go into blame at my husband.

This is also a wonderful confirmation how co-creation works. When we live in true service, the money flows without a need to struggle hard for it. We are not designed to struggle hard, we are designed to be love, the rest is done by energy.

I know that one well Loretta! I can create unnecessary stresses about money and then point the finger at my partner which shows a lack of responsibility on my part but also a lack of appreciation of our amazing relationship – I have the opportunity to turn this around now!

This is such a great sharing Rachel and a mentality that many suffer from. It is great that you have exposed that your struggle with money was just a reflection of your internal struggle to be enough… and you had been measuring your worth by your success. It’s just divine and will support many to know that healing this poverty consciousness just comes from deeply appreciating who you are and what you bring… and by doing this your quality is no longer laced with something that denies true service.

This is beautiful Rachel. It is amazing, as you have shared, how we can completely turn things around by feeling how we already are rather than holding onto old patterns that stop us feeling our amazingness.

“The way you live and everything you already are is your reward.” What a statement, and so true. I have read this blog before and this statement jumped out and I have felt it through out my day ever since. Its who I am and what I bring every moment of my day is the reward to myself and others. I don’t need to take a holiday from that. Thank you Rachel, great blog

So true Michael Chater – abundance is there inside us, sometimes I forget this though and can come from fear of not having enough, and it can be a feeling of not having enough time, money, love …. the list goes on when in truth this is the illusion of life. There is so much love inside all of us when we feel and focus on this the ‘not enough’ melts away.

Thank you so much for this awesome blog, Rachel, it really helps me. I have gone through similar experiences and still feel the energy of it. Some members of my family were and are still worrying about money all the time although they have enough. I took that on and it often creates an enormous tension in my life. For many years I was so focused on working and earning money that I needed loads of coffee to keep me going. I know this internal struggle to be enough and to be more so well… and this is so crazy because we ARE already amazing, we just don`t choose to feel it and appreciate ourselves for the love we are.

Rachel this is such an awesome blog, I love to re read this and all these wonderful comments again and again as it is such a great reminder to appreciate everything in life and not to focus on lack. I can often get caught in feeling I don’t have enough money but I am aware now this is just a mind set that comes from not feeling enough in myself.
Thank you for your amazing article and your super wise accountant!

After re- reading this blog a couple of days ago I was due to attend a meeting, the meeting was close to where I live and I usually walk in to save the company parking expenses but because I have to carry some very heavy bags (two laps tops and books) the walk can be quite stressful. After reading your blog I realized I was focusing on poverty rather then honoring myself and what I bring, so I parked the car and put it on expenses which is considered absolutely expectable by my company. It so funny though how I had been walking around with the belief that I needed to save money for my company and at the same time put myself in disregard. Oh the joys of unraveling old beliefs!

That is a great point Samantha we are so worried about saving money whether for ourselves or for others that we are willing to compromise our bodies and cause pain and discomfort just to save a few pennies. It doesn’t make sense really especially as I would then often then have to spend 3 times as much on going to the osteopath to try to repair the damage done.

Awesome sharing Rachel and a joy to read. “My wealth comes from inside of me” this statement I have been truly able to feel for myself of late. Having taken on more work recently (a completely different line of work that I am used to) it has opened up my way of viewing the role I’ve allowed money to play in my life. I have such appreciation for those I work with and the joy of the job itself and the grip of focusing on earning more money is not the focus anymore.

What you describe here Rachel is also something I can relate to… At various times in my life, I’ve either had money or not had money, and it seemed to make no difference to stress levels either way as even when I had money, I was still worried I didn’t have enough and where the next lot would come from etc. So I too held a consciousness about money. I am still exploring this, but am learning that as long as I focus on within, caring for myself first and appreciating and honouring what I am able to offer, the less ‘issues’ about money I have….

Its feels like Rachel’s transition to really serving her patients and clients has resulted in a fiscal turnaround… this could be revelatory for the world, and a substantial paradigm shift of awareness on money and business.

So true Chris, there are groups and organisations who have provided a true service to humanity and flourished and this blog represents an example of this when the focus in on the lived quality of the service we provide as opposed to simply the service itself.

I’m contemplating a career shift which will halve my income. I have been so focused on the lack of money and how will I survive that I haven’t even bothered to think about the new position and the opportunities it may bring. It’s been all about the money and not about me, or me in my new job and what I can bring to it. The crazy thing is the low income will only be temporary until I become qualified. This blog and the awesome Financial Advisor that I too have, have made me realise that I need to find a job that will support me in my day to day living. The rest will come.

The money associated with certain jobs has held me back from making career moves in the past. If the money was too low I would fret about not being able to maintain my lifestyle. If it was too high, I sometimes held back from applying because I felt the job was ‘out of my league’ even though on paper I was more than capable of carrying out the duties. What we feel about ourselves has such a big impact on the choices we make, or don’t make.

The beliefs about poverty and money is the same energy I have for food. I am always stressing that I don’t have enough food in the fridge. I stress that I might run out of money and can’t buy food. It never happens but the belief is always there. My handbag looks like a supermarket bag some days and I now live at the back of a supermarket which just totally puts me in my comfort zone. I’m not sure how I created this belief but it’s there.

Gosh Lindell I had not related this to food, but as I read your comment I realise I have the same thing and worry about not having enough food in the house. There is always loads and sometimes I have to throw it out, which I hate doing because I feel its wasteful. Something for me to look at.

That is a great breakthrough Rachel, congratulations. Money and especially the way we are with money is a super reflection if we are willing to look honestly at it.
I can for sure sit relaxed with you for a dentist appointment. Once here in the Netherlands I had a tooth taken out without being asked and more important without a reason. I was 19 years old so I was just shocked and went home. later I could clearly feel that this was done to earn money from the insurance company.

I have had a similar experience when I visited a dentist I had never been to before. I was told I needed 8 filings and it would cost £850. I was then asked if I could pay some of it there and then. I said I wanted some time to think about it and then thankfully got two second opinions from two other dentists who said I needed no fillings! It is shocking to feel how money can be put above what is truly needed for a patient.

This is an awesome story and display that ‘everything is energy’ because as you healed your hurt around not being enough, the anxiety around money went and there was no tension to block the natural and greater flow of energy to come your way – love it.

“When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.”, I can relate to this in our business, we where also feeling the struggle for cash flow, but once we began to appreciate ourselves and focus on the customers it started to change, our bookings increased across the board.

Recognising how the poverty mentality governs the way we live, there is such an opportunity to turn around our relationship with ourselves. The relationship of feeling less than, not good enough, value and appreciation seems very much linked to our relationship with money and income. Deepening and appreciating ourselves starting with self care and self love, is a great step towards clearing the poverty mentality.

The joy of working for true service for people is greater than any money can buy because not only are they getting a truly healing from being truly met, it is also an extremely healing way to naturally be.

Thank you Rachel for sharing your story, I can relate to the poverty consciousness, it has been through most of my life, living from week to week, now life is easier for me in the money aspect and my needs are often met in the most unexpected ways.

Rachel you highlight how its not the amount of money you have that will necessarily determine if you have a poverty mentality or not. Rich people can have it too, and less financially well off can manage their money incredibly well and have a more easy going relationship with it. I had not thought about that much before reading your blog and its interesting when you shared that because you didn’t feel ‘enough’ the money you had also did not feel enough. How we feel about ourselves colours every other relationship that we have.

An awesome sharing, Rachel, here and lets me realize, that the relationship with money, income or sales seems alway be connected to the believes and mentalities, we carry from our childhood. And that if one builds up his relationship to work and money from what he truly is, it can’t but blossom and evolve. So very interesting, how your patients came to a deeper trust and were opening up to their own self-worth, when you did: “This has led to a higher level of case acceptance and patients booking for the best treatment options rather than compromising their dental care by opting for a quick fix or cheaper short-term option… and hence a significant increase in revenue.” Thank you for this shift and inspiration to look at the bigger picture of my circumstances of working and earning money.

Absolutely Benkt. I have the same one, plus a few extra beliefs to add to the mix. What Rachel has shared though, is that we don’t have to live with these beliefs forever. We can clear them at any time, with a little work and commitment to appreciating ourselves just as we are.

Thank you Rachel,
Your blog inspires me to reflect on my own relationship with money and I can feel I have also been holding on to a poverty mentality to some degree.
This has resulted in me becoming a collector of too much stuff, that I may need in the future and fear I will not be able to afford at the time.
This way of thinking has lead me to feel burdened by an over accumulation of stuff that weighs me down and at times feels unmanageable to accommodate without it impacting on other areas of my life, such as that feeling of spaciousness and inner trust that I am already enough.
As my love and value of myself increases I am more aware of this out-dated pattern and have started letting go of those things that no longer serve me to be the divine and loving being I am beginning to feel within.
Looking at my fears around not being enough has been key to initiating this unfolding process.

Thank you Nicole I can feel that it is time for me to do the same and also to look more deeply at my relationship with money and how it might be holding me back from being all that I can be in this life. A friend mentioned a financial advisor the other day, it could well be time to engage him/her also. I certainly feel that “the way you live and how you are is your reward” are very wise words indeed and like you, I can see how I have accumulated things and knowledge and experience to make up for what I have considered my own shortfall.

Nicole I can related to this, holding onto things incase of fear i might need it in the future and the fear in not been able to afford it again. I have lived in that momentum for along time and I feel I picked that up as I was growing up. As I started to let go of things, I could feel my body feeling lighter and more spacious, allow more opportunities to come forward and the fear of lack of disappearing. I now know the more space I create the more supported I am

Thanks Rachel. You have given me some solid pointers around dealing with a poverty mentality as I too was raised in a family where money was scarce and times were often tough, despite the fact that my parents worked very hard to provide financially for the family. Self appreciation is certainly such a key element in every facet of our lives but especially when we consider what we reflect to others when we are in a work environment.

Very true, if we live all of us in full then we don’t need a holiday as a reward. The reward is that we feel our own loveliness expanding everyday. A very new perception on the need of holidays which clearly show the illusion if you see how many people are tired and off track again after being one week back to work.

I love coming back to the wisdom in this blog and reading the comments. Money is energy and our relationship with it can be so revealing on so many levels. I know as I work on more self appreciation and appreciating all that I have already in my life I feel more abundant and money flows more easier. This is such a huge topic and one you have brought great light to. Thank you again Rachel.

We have the ability to put roadblocks in the path of our lives but rarely are we able to overcome them. Perhaps because they are of our own making the task is doubly difficult. I always had a difficult relationship with money. Spending it for myself was done with guilt while giving it away to my children or charity was easy and felt good. Thanks to Universal Medicine’s teachings I have come to feel that the guilt stems from a lack of worth on my part. As I am learning to appreciate myself I see what money can do for me, like seeing practitioners when I need support.

That is a striking story to read for me now. “When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income” That is a lesson I had to learn in my present job. To not focus on the outcome (turn over) and make it about people and the love for what I do. I just got fired because I put results before the relation with people. Terrible but I now see it as blessing in disguise. I could’t be stopped in another way, apparently.

The way our money situation is, shows us how we are doing with our life force. Are we bringing the fullness of ourselves or do we contract and hide a part of us out of comfort to not stand out or confront the world? And also, you see people with a lot of money and they are like a dutch expression ‘ sitting on it’. They cannot enjoy the money because the money situation doesn’t fit how the person lives. It doesn’t fit with the level of life force they live, which creates a continued tension within them.

I just love this post Rachael!
‘When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income. ‘
Money is such a shameful topic in society. If you have it, then people treat you differently, people judge you and make assumptions about you, yet what isn’t often very obvious, is that those with the money are often judging themselves and often don’t feel they deserve it.
Money or no money…it all starts with appreciating who we are, and from there whatever we need will present itself.

I noticed that my attitude towards money was needing healing too. I grow up with a very simpel living. I worked since I was 13 years old during every free moment I had. I was very much used to work hard to have money to do all what I felt was needed. This pattern I lived all my life, I worked for money. I became aware that I went on with this pattern all my life. I can clearly see, becoming much more aware and honest since I met Serge Benhayon, how that is not good for me and not serving humanity. Yes we need money to live from, so we need a job for that but the first purpose of work should be to add to work together in brotherhood in our return to our soul. So to be in service in what is needed for All in stead of what I need as an individual. This way we can still earn money but it is good for all.

“…my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.”
How very true Rachel and how misguided we are when we perpetually seek outward for what can only be truly found within. Bankruptcy begins when we forget our innate beauty never departs and thus poverty is a choice we don’t even know we are making until we are able to choose otherwise.

Liane there is no coincidence we have been led to believe our worth is our bank balance and the items we own, which means everyone assesses their value based on property and possessions. When we know our own value is from within our wealth is endless and the flow of love in our lives reflected, we are not bound and restricted by the dollar, our true requirements are met and an abundance felt.

Measuring our ‘worth and success against a profit and loss statement’ will always lay the foundation for a better than and less than mentality. The truth is we are all innately equal, we have just made different choices to get to where we are today. When we wake up to the fact that we ourselves are not profit and loss statements and begin to take the steps to appreciate who we are and not just what we do, we start to realise we have an endless supply of wisdom and love within that makes us wealthy way beyond measure. A true wealth that far exceeds anything that can ever be financially gain.

Yes great point you make here Sally that it is the habits we acquire through fear that hold us back. I love what Rachel has highlighted too simply in that her struggle with money was a reflection of her internal struggle to feel enough, and to be more when she was already everything! When we appreciate and accept who we are what we have got and where we are at, life can flow.

Recently I have been reflecting that all money is really God’s money and that if we co – create with him we buy with that awareness of the bigger universal picture, if we on the other hand choose to ignore God’s love we can buy for host of other reasons like proving we are somebody, or buying out of an unsatisfiable hunger or out of jealously or comparison of another.
When we use money for truth, rather than personal gain the whole world benefits.

Samantha you have a highlighted a personal responsibility with every dollar we spend, to understand the motivations, and question if it is for truth or personal gain to support a need. Money is a transaction of energy and an awareness is as important as the food we put in our mouth or the words we express , it all reflects.

‘When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income’. I know this to be true too. All sorts of opportunities come our way when we really enjoy what we do and who we are. And as for possessions – I am due for another clear out soon – how about if I don’t really enjoy this object, piece of clothing etc just let it go and give someone else the opportunity of bringing joy to the world?

Elaine that’s a new way of expressing a clear out ” how about I don’t really enjoy this object, piece of clothing etc just let it go and give someone else the opportunity of bringing joy to the world? ” I feel when someone else picks up that item and they love it , it gets reimprinted with their love and the item shines again.

So true Elaine, when we dont make life about money but instead about true purpose then things really start to flow, businesses improve, cash flows improve and we feel a lot more fulfillment from the work we are doing.

Rachel it’s a great message, we can spend so much time on the ‘what’s not’ as opposed to the ‘what is’ and forget to appreciate the gifts we bring and the ‘riches’ which are so lovingly there to support us.

“You see your business as a burden, as too much responsibility, and instead of focussing on what you do have and how well you are doing.” I can so relate to this for many years I was caught in this and was constantly worried about money and how we would survive. Once I met Serge Benhayon, and through his teachings I realised I hard to change my relationship with money and business. I started to focus on what we had, what we are offering and what we are doing. Trusting that if we are providing a loving service then the money will flow, and sure be it true the shift has begun to happen. I no longer see our business as a burden or too much responsibility, but more of a joyful service we provide.

There are still times when I struggle with the poverty mentality; even when I have enough!.
I now know that it is not the temporal money that makes us rich but the connection to our inner wisdom and love; there are times when this fact is forgotten!. Dealing with my hurts and fears keeps this connection alive and vital.

Thanks for this sharing Rachel, I too grew up with a poverty mentality that I have kept into adult life where I would feel the crippling effects of feeling like I didnt have enough money. This way of being would influence any financial decision I was making. I feel now that my self love and self worth has deepened that this has a direct effect on how I relate to money

Yes exactly Chris, over the last 5 years my relationship with myself has grown and I have developed more of a loving relationship growing appreciation for myself and as I have done this my relationship with money has also evolved. I used to not feel worthy of having money and if it came my way I would often squander it or lose it! I feel this was because the lack of self worth and self regard I had for myself, now 5 years later having been listening to presentations by Serge Benhayon I have started to reclaim a naturally love and regard for myself which has in fact directly impacted the amount of money flowing through my life.

Even though I come from a family which never had to worry about money and was provided with everything I needed, I was raised with the consciousness to be very careful spending money and that the worry not to have enough. My parents experienced war times. As I in my adulthood I mainly worked part time or not at all I had the situation to have mainly not much money. Later when I start earning more on a regular basis I still worried about it.
It is important to heal our issues around the aspect of money not to let ideals and beliefs keeps us imprisoned.

I heard a statistic that almost 50% of couples argue about money and I was one of them in the past. So there is a lot going on in our relationship with money and we need to become more honest about it. How much are we still dominated by a certain consciousness around the aspect of money?

I am starting to realise that money and responsibility go hand in hand, and if I shy away from stepping up and taking responsibility energetically I am not evolving or expanding – this then directly impacts the flow of money in my life.

Wow, this is just what I need to read as I am really ready to earn more money and with that, I feel my commitment to myself is changing and with that the responsibility. I don’t have to focus on the money as the earning money is a direct result from me committing more to me, who I am and what I bring. The more I do that, the more flow I will have in my money situation.

Just fantastic Rachel reading about your healing of issues that should have been resolved long in the past but were still here with you until more recently. Your words: “I have been working on healing my personal issues for quite some years now by applying the teachings presented by Universal Medicine” are poignant because you point out that you are healing your issues yourself, by applying teachings by Universal Medicine and this is a very important fact that cannot be overstated that the way Universal Medicine works is to empower people to become honest, take responsibility and self heal – not tell them what to do.

What I am learning is that If I want to do something that truly feels like a huge YES in my body and that will not only bring growth and deepening for myself but also for all those around me, the money always takes care of itself. So when I take myself out of the way, it is taken care off…

What I have found is that the more I work on my issues of lack of self worth, the relationship I have with money also changes. In the past there would be a lot of conflict whether to buy something or not (usually when the item was for me but not when others were concerned) and this was pointed out to me via my husband on several occasions. The change came when I started to appreciate myself more and more, and the conflict of whether to buy started to fade.

Rachel you have helped debunk the myth that is often carried in migrant cultures where moving to a better place can leave people feeling that they can never accumulate enough money and the fear that saving for a rainy days doesn’t allow room for appreciating your commitment to working and enjoying the fruits of your labour. This blog reminds me of the quote I read where is referred to ” richness of wealth or richness of heart” Which would you choose?’

Beautifully said Rachel, – ‘ I had been measuring my worth and success against a profit and loss statement and not on who I am and what I offered to my patients and the people around me.
My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.
APPRECIATING WHAT I HAVE AND WHO I AM’

It is essential that we build a healthy relationship with our finances, if we sweep them under the carpet we will definitely trip on them , and if we ignore them they will definitely sneak up and bite us in the behind, and if we worry about them we will just get stressed… it is , as this article says , an essential vital relationship.

It is amazing how much our personal wealth can be intertwined with our feelings of self-worth. As if what we have can be a measure for who we are. Nothing can measure who you are. You are you and that is always more than enough.

When I see houses that have junk all around them, I know that they live in a poverty mentality. It is not being able to throw anything away in case they might need it. I know this because I felt like this for some years. There is a lack of flow in a life when these things have to be kept and clung to. It is very freeing to let go of all the just in case things and to trust that all will be well and what is needed will come when I live in the flow and rhythm I am.

I recognise the feeling of living with the ‘poverty mentality’ even though my financial situation has changed significantly through a greater commitment to life (including work). I am understanding that some of the financial savings goals I have set for myself really contribute to this as when they come from an ideal rather than a true impulse, they are onerous and create struggle in trying to meet the demands of the savings schedule. It’s so important to be honest with ourselves about why we feel we need what we think we need before committing ourselves to something that could very well be a huge drain on our vitality.

Wow what an Amazing financial adviser! That is so cool what he helped you to see. Over the last few weeks especially with regards to money I have been able to see lack of money (I have not been receiving the salary for the amount work I have been doing) is down to lack of self worth, I didn’t get the salary I should have because on some level I felt I was not worth it. But what I truly love with what you have shared here is that it has in the end nothing to do with money but how we live and connect with ourselves and others, then the money is there. I had to remind myself this when going into a reaction about what I was being paid .. to ask myself why did I do the job in the first place and what I loved about it. It was great to bring it back to this.

I have had a similar experience with time and feeling that there is never enough of it. Today I experienced something different. I was going through revision questions with some students who have their first GCSE exam next week. Instead of trying to rush through as many questions as possible, I stopped and made sure they understood the meaning of each unfamiliar word and showed some videos to remind them of related experiments we had done in the past. We only covered a few questions but there was an understanding of the bigger picture and a sense of calm in the room.

Recently I have looked into my finances and made some decisions around money. It feels good to tackle these things and have a clear picture of what’s coming in and going out and also make plans for the future. I like the idea of seeing a financial advisor, and may well make an appointment in the near future.

I agree what a gift. It would be so easy for the financial advisor to tick a box, sell you a tonne of policies without truly understanding what you have come to him for. It sounds suspiciously like your financial advisor has discovered what he has shared with you in his own work, and is therefore able to share the appreciation of work with you. What a gift.

What a great blog, money affects all of us, all the time. We are surrounded by the energy money. We think it is about money a lot of the time, but usually it is a great indicator and reflection of how we are living, our relationship with ourselves and how we live life. So it is up to us to constantly be aware of what and how money is flowing, or not as the case may be, in and out of our lives.

‘My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.’ What a great quote, Rachel. Everything boils down to denying our own self-worth in the end and a resistance to accepting that we’re always enough as we are. A great inspiration.

I am finding that when I trust and surrender and feel from my body what is true to buy, invest in etc. then money flows and what I need is there, when I worry, go into my head and make silly decisions then I compromise the abundant flow that is in truth always there.

I love this blog, Rachel as it highlights beautifully the rewards of being constantly present in everything that we do and then the rest takes care of itself. The connections we make in each moment form the basis of our day and allow a flow that is much more harmonious.

Awesome article and one that I know many will relate to. I have been avoiding addressing my money issues for a while now, in fact I didn’t actually know I had any money issues until recently.
I have this belief system that says, if you pay to much attention to money you won’t have enough but if you leave it alone it takes care of itself. This is nonsense of course but I have been running it for so long that I really have to put effort in to changing this belief; your blog has inspired me to take the plunge and get honest and see what comes from it.

Rachel it was great to come back to your blog as it was reassuring that when we start to appreciate our self and what we offer, that this brings change which supports how we are at work and with others. This allows the flow of energy / cash to flow smoothly and with ease.

Feeling money as energy is something that is generally a foreign concept to most, but I have been playing with this for some time. To feel it as something that comes in and out of my life, to not be attached to it, but also feel my worth in it also. To allow it to flow, not allowing it to have over me in any way a hold, this feels much more freeing.

Rachel I love how you share that you had ‘never made the leap that money, or at least my attitude to it, was something that needed healing too’. It’s fascinating how we separate and value different parts of our lives and measure and weigh them against each other by placing different rates of importance on each of them. But in the real world every separate part contributes to the whole so everything counts and this is something we all have to accept as true.

Appreciating money and loving choices we make for ourselves is a Reflection of the flow of energy. When we understand this, the flow becomes smooth, then there is no attachment or need or struggle. As everything is energy, the abundance of flow is provided as required. What I really am becoming to understand is that our life force is connected to the flow of money, and the more I connect to my Livingness, the smoother the flow of money.

Great article Rachel and one that we can all pause and relate to in different areas of our lives. Recently I participated in a Money workshop ran by Deborah Benhayon and my whole awareness of money in my life changed; and as this changed so has how I am in my body about money. We create the life we experience which is so supportive to know – because at anytime if there is something happening that is not working we can change it just by bringing more of ourselves and the love we are to it.

“When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.” There is so much wisdom in your blog Rachel, when I worry about money it like I am confirming that there is not enough, when I focus on what I do have and appreciate it I replace the scarcity feeling with a feeling of abundance. It is again is a choice.

“When I worry about money it’s like I am confirming there is not enough” – bringing it back to appreciation and the feeling of scarcity dissipates and is replaced with abundance…..how true. And so simply stated Samantha.

Rachel this is a great blog to return to as there is something in it for everyone I feel! It seems money can be an issue for those with it and those without it, but comes back to our attitude and how we relate to it or let it affect us in our lives.

I love coming back to your blog Rachel, it is such a beautiful tender reminder to not slip into that poverty protection mentality. When I worry about money I can feel the contraction and restrictions; your wise words support me to connect back to myself and be present in each and every moment.

I love reading the wisdom shared in this blog Rachel, I am very aware of the poverty mentality and how this affected me for most of my life, breaking this cycle is incredibly empowering and as you say creates space for us to feel the joy and to appreciate what we bring to our workplace.

I came to realise recently that I was not appreciating all the success and awareness I had and in that I was getting caught up in the game of struggle. When we connect to struggle that’s what we attract. When we can connect to true success and accept awareness, we can welcome truth and the flow of abundance.

I feel what Rachel shares about holding nagging thoughts that can influence our behaviour well after our life circumstances change, can apply to many situations when growing up, not limited to financial distress. It is great to read about one persons capacity to heal with the support of Universal Medicine which addresses the emotional disturbances that underpin many lifestyle choices and in my view exemplifies true healing.

When we lose sight of the gold that we all carry, no matter our background, colour, creed, then we are truly living in poverty as no amount of outside accomplishments or trappings can fill that emptiness.

‘I had been measuring my worth and success against a profit and loss statement and not on who I am and what I offered to my patients and the people around me.’ True success is something that certainly needs to be explored more deeply. Because even if the profit and loss statement is all in the green but your health is deteriorating and you are unable to enjoy your body and work or family, then the money aspect doesn’t matter and is not reflective of a truly successful life. Whereas you, Rachel, have everything to be successful about in a rich and vital life, so money is a reflective bonus of the way you live and love.

When we stop making it all about money or just one aspect of life – there seems to be a lot more space to enjoy all the other areas and aspects that are just as important as what’s in our bank account.

‘ When you stop focusing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income’. When our sole focus is only about money, the intention is wrong from the beginning, and people feel this.

Over the last few months I have deepened my self-trust, and as a result now trusting that everything I need for this life journey is already within me, which creates so much space for all I need to flow my way….

Having a positive relationship with money is something that I feel we all strive for. It is in part the striving that can lead us astray. Money can reflect many things about us and who we are, how we like to operate in life. It is always good to be responsible, to look after ourselves financially, but also allow there to be space with money, not hold on too tight. I know I used to do that and I felt it related to me wanting to hold onto protection, I invariable was very coverted with money, I didn’t ever feel like ever had enough, when in fact I had more than enough. This changed when I healed hurts within myself and let go of the protection and I no longer feel that way about money.

What I have noticed as I have begun to let go of the need of money and the lack of money and started to trust the flow, the money situation has begun to change and there feels like a more loving steady flow.

So often our relationship with money is based on need and I have been there too. In living in connection to ourselves we find that we have all we truly need within and money is just an external ingredient.

It is amazing how money owns us and is the driving factor of so many peoples lives – and yet as I study the economics side of my degree I am beginning to get a taste for just how much we have bought into something totally false – that money and the world economy doesn’t really exist, because money lost its true value many years ago and it is only our faith in it that keeps it worth something. And so, when our entire lives can be based around money it is a very weak foundation to build up. It is most certainly needed and there is no need to be poor, however there is first and foremost a wealth within that is of far greater and truer value.

Most of the world is obsessed with money in one way or another so it is great to read a blog that gives a fresh approach to looking at this topic. I love what your financial advisor said to you –” you work hard so you can have enough to take a few days off and reward yourself for your efforts when in fact the way you live and everything you already are is your reward.” That is such great advice and I would say rare of a financial adviser to speak like this.

Money is such a lifeline in how we feel about ourselves and the beliefs that we can carry. Do you keep saving for that rainy day or spend it while you can? This blog has shown me that much of the way we use it comes from what has been taught or what we have experienced growing up. Thank you Rachel for sharing that there is another way to be with money that allows us to appreciate the way we have chosen to live that breaks the ideas around the hardships that are often portrayed.

It is really interesting to see that what has made the difference between the stressed time and the way more successful time is the flow within you. Appreciating who you are and allowing the flow of this in your work and home is brilliant. As soon as we worry, go into contraction, the flow slows down, just as our blood flow slows when we tighten our bodies or say…tighten our belts. I have noticed this with myself too. When I allow things to flow and have that appreciation, so many things take care of themselves once I have put them in place.

I can relate to so much of what you have written here Rachel; especially the feeling that I do not have enough money even when I do. What constitutes enough anyway? The poverty, careful, don’t spend anything on yourself mentality is still very strong in me although I must say much less of late.
Thank you for the gentle reminder to be very loving and tender with myself as I develop a deeper understanding around money.

Really interesting to read this again Rachel, amazing that in making your practice about people that the rewards flow for everyone, what a great way to accept how important what you do is and not what you get financially out of it.

Beautiful and inspiring blog to read. Sometimes I can feel the consciousness of not having enough money getting a hold on me. Thoughts can enter and I can easily get swept away if I am not careful, feeling the panic and my breath becoming erratic. Clocking these thoughts which I have come to know are not who I am has been so loving for myself. I have also come to know that I have a choice; I can indulge in the thoughts or feel what my body is communicating with me and let them go.

“My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.” This is a very common affliction in the world today with many extremely wealthy people amassing ever larger piles of money in an attempt to fill the emptiness they feel inside.

Getting to the point where you realise that your struggle with money was a reflection of the internal struggle you had with not feeling like you were enough is extraordinary, as is realising you are actually enough already. The world indeed changes when you start to appreciate yourself and everything you bring.

“But the greatest gift was finding a financial advisor who was able to connect to me as a person and have the wisdom to work with me to break down the poverty mentality that was holding me back from being fully free to be me, to enjoy my life and work knowing the wealth inside.” What a lovely and rare experience you had Rachel, it is not often we find a financial advisor that asks us to look past the money and what was behind your need to fill the gaps in your appointment book, and instead look at the wealth you offer from your heart.

This is an interesting account of how our circumstances might change but the consciousness we grew up under needs addressing as well as it does not change automatically. So many people put up with living under pressure every day without ever asking if this condition can be changed. It is very inspiring to read your journey with that.

The worry of having enough money is a constant pressure that is felt by many. How to pay the next bill, provide for the family and know that there is enough to keep us going. For many years I could say that I have the same beliefs that you have shared in this great blog Rachael Hall. I didn’t live in poverty but had parents that were raised in this situation and did their best to provide for their family and constantly encouraged us to save for a rainy day. This did provide me with financially security in my later years but the quality in which I was living was really felt as I had a fear of money rather then appreciating the responsibility of living with it.

When we tap in to our inner riches, we realise no money in the world can ever buy this. This immediately shows us that we are all equal and that what we do, what we look like and what we own has no bearing on what truly counts.

Yes money has been used as a measuring stick of self worth, but the truth is money is a practical support that can come and go with equal ease, it’s for us to realise we have a responsibility to allow that ease and appreciate that it is there for us at all times and in doing so not block that support. It has no bearing on the true riches, joy and abundance we have available to us at all times.

True value is not your net financial worth, but the depth of self love we hold ourselves in. No amount of financial assets have any bearing on the riches that are available to us from within, life offers abundance when we allow and trust we are always met.

Rachel this is a great blog and to ‘Appreciating what I have and Who I am’ is applicable to all of us, I too have worried about money, and it was not until I started to truly look after and appreciate myself that I noticed that there always seemed to be more money than I had before, although I wasn’t earning anymore and my spending hadn’t really changed either.

Great article Martin which asking us to take responsibility for our choice to drink alcohol and what we are actually supporting by buying it in the first place. Do not think humanity is willing to take this level of responsibility, as too many people ’love’ their alcohol and will turn a blind eye to every thing you mention, so as to be able to continue to drink.

“When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income”
I am so noticing the truth in this statement. Thank you Rachel.

The title alone brings a great healing.
I grew up just 18 miles down the road in what was countryside; but the lack of money was always a worry and a dominant theme and cause of adult stress. There must be a certain comfort in the pattern of money worries, not making the bills or just surviving, moments of reprieve/relief and then the cycle begins rolling from paycheck to paycheck, some months more tight than others.

Reading this I know I have not cleared these patterns that distract me from feeling the emptiness I feel because I have not moved through my day with the lovely quality of me. This poverty mentality is a very clear choice to not be in my fullness regardless of circumstance I’ve created. I’m not tied to it, it’s not who I am. It is not a fair trade off (not being me in exchange for scarcity, stress and worry) but it’s one I have chosen – a necessary honesty to choose otherwise.

An awesome comment Karin, “Reading this I know I have not cleared these patterns that distract me from feeling the emptiness I feel because I have not moved through my day with the lovely quality of me.” How we rely on all forms of drama and stress to fill the space we have not filled with our lovely selves.

“My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day.” This is pure gold Rachel. So many people try to achieve by having more possessions to compensate for not feeling good enough. I came from a family that did have enough materially, but the ‘not good enough’ syndrome has still dominated me. Dealing with our early hurts – wherever they began – enables us to heal – and to live a full life.

Dear Rachel,
I choose to re read your blog tonight as poverty mentality is something I know I have not yet let go of. The beauty you offer in honoring the wealth that lies within, is inspiring, and offers a truth I know that I am now ready to live.

The game of poverty is a real eye opener when we stop to realise the true value of money and how it can be used to support the quality of life we can live so that is doesn’t leave us in a cycle of despair. This blog is a reminder of the moves we can make from irresponsibility to responsibility.

Such a great blog, I really enjoyed reading because you really shared all of you – thankyou. As a business owner it’s a great reminder not to get tangled up in the potential stresses and burdens of finances, but to simply bring all of me to every working day, appreciating all that I am and the people around me. The wealth is truly within!

“When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.” There is so much in this statement Rachel I know when I stop appreciating myself what I do and what I bring I am saying no to a natural abundance that is always there.

A blog that just keeps giving, even some years later. It was great to read this blog again and see, “Who would have thought it?! When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.” It funny we often get caught by the brightest light or the side show which detracts away from what was really going on. I can relate and understand what your saying here Rachel and yet a part of me is still saying “but”. I can see that when my focus or dedication shifts from the people around me and goes to the profit and loss then my business changes. The numbers are important but only a part of what the business is. As you have done I need to look beyond these figures to see what they are saying and not just take them on face value, read more deeply about the money. Not try and simply solve it but getting more money. I have found this throughout my life, more money wasn’t the answer as it just bought the same thing in larger quantities. Appreciating seems to be a key, I know it has been in other parts and maybe a session with that financial advisor of yours should go into the diary as well, thank you.

Great sharing Ray. If we focus on people, on service, and work hard – that is not being lazy, cruising but also not being stressed up, and get caught-up in the doing – the money will take care of itself.

The poverty mentality shows our lack of wealth inside ourselves. Our outer wealth, our true wealth, is then a reflection of our inner wealth. Also interesting to see how people with a serious lack of self worth can still make a lot of money. But still feel empty inside. All the money cannot solve this emptiness inside.

What a great blog to read! By accident – no such thing as co-incidence – I stumbled on this blog once again, and it made me ponder: do I have a poverty mentality? And what kind of mentality did I took on from my parents? The parent thing is one topic I have to ponder more deeply (a new comment or blog) on as we were basically pretty rich and my father did have a very good income. But at this moment I do have a poverty mentality as well! That did not come from my parents, but something I developed the last three years, due to a financial crisis I managed myself into and which I did solve for the years following. The key thing I healed was a guilt that I was wrong and therefore was not worth a decent income. I was living on the edge, making ends meet, always struggling to get the money in. And wondering: why with all this experience and qualities does nobody want to hire me for a decent paying job? Also somebody else had to point to me that I was carrying guilt inside me. The fact there is still a remainder of this poverty mentality shows itself in the way I deal with my job and the way I deal with my customers. From time to time I worry that my contract won’t be extended and sometimes I chase up customers by phone or mail a bit too much because this customer should make my target, and see that I can stay in my job. I therefore start using customers as a mean to my results in. Ugly. I know fully realize this, and I can feel I can let this behavior go. It is not needed anymore, as I can feel I am very valuable, feel that I am beautiful and am worth a great income.

Plop. I realised what kind of ‘money mentality’ I took on from my parents, specially my dad. We did not have a poverty mentality, but we had a spend it all mentality, and despite a big income and big heritages run into financial problems. Constantly chasing big dreams which should solve it all, underway not paying attention to also the ‘pennies’. Spending money as a way to feel good about your self. I have been doing exactly the same thing. Big aha. Thanks Rachel. No need for a financial advisor here.

Most people have money issues of one kind or another and tend to avoid dealing with them. It is a very important aspect of our life that can be quite debilitating if not dealt with. Equally very liberating and empowering if we do.

Plop 2! Another healing from this blog. I pondered on what kind of ‘money mentality” I inherited from my parents: It was not a poverty mentality, as there was always enough money and we were living in big houses most of the time when I was young. There was enough money. Plenty. But even we did have the money, we managed to spend it all. It hit me: that is exactly how I have been living so far. Most of my life I have had good well paid jobs and businesses that were flourishing. Still I managed to spend all the money, and live on credit as well. Always chasing the big deal that would make me really rich, so that I wouldn’t have to work and could do whatever I want – and all to give me self worth. Now seeing this pattern, I can let this go. Thanks Rachel for inspiration.

I know this feeling very well of constantly swimming up stream, and I have noticed that it can happen with just about any aspect of my life, such as relationships, the tidiness of my house, even walking the dog. Everything can seem at times like a struggle. But what Universal Medicine is teaching me is how this struggle is actually coming from the choices that I am making in my life as a whole, and if I want to live with a greater sense of harmony throughout all aspects of my life – then I need to address all aspects of my life and not just focus on that one specific area of tension. With this I am learning that flow in life encompasses all of life and that no part of it needs to be left behind, even money.

When we find the wealth inside that is precious – we are all equally blessed, the wealth is readily accessible and we can share it with all around us because there is an abundance. If we look to the outside to fill this gap then we are open to comparison, inadequacy, lack, poverty.

This is truly remarkable Rachel, ‘But the greatest gift was finding a financial advisor who was able to connect to me as a person and have the wisdom to work with me to break down the poverty mentality that was holding me back from being fully free to be me, to enjoy my life and work knowing the wealth inside.’ Wow.

Your blog shows how focussed we are on doing things, achieving grand results and even having a level of security in life to keep it all going well. What happens when you earn this, live this and actually have these elements of life nailed? Do we surrender, accept and allow ourselves to appreciate the glory of what we have just built? I know for me this is a big one.

Coming back to your blog this morning Rachel I was struck by what you express here; it feels so true and expansive, despite the amount of income that flows;
“When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income”.

Rachel working in the poverty consciousness of never having enough feels exhausting just reading about it, never mind working like that. It makes sense that although there may be success financially from working like this, it does not bring peace of mind or give us a way of working which feels joyful. This way of working unfortunately is the norm for many who want to feel that security of having enough money but from what I have read it comes with a high price – thank you for sharing that there is a way out of the poverty consciousness trap and that we can enjoy our choice of work without constantly worrying.

A very timely read for me ! Your sharing should be compulsory reading for us all. I have struggled where money is concerned and still don’t have a full handle on it yet and there is definitely more learning and appreciation needed.

Thank you for sharing Rachel, this is something that has played out in my life and as you the more I value and appreciate myself the more I can let go of the stress of not having enough and bring my focus to the quality within me and enjoy that in every moment of my life.

“Fear of lack” as I call it is a pretty heavy duty consciousness that relates to many things besides money it seems to me. It can really be insidious and undermine the natural knowing by feel of what to buy and what not to, what to be contented with, and so on. Fortunately I find that the more I know myself inside the more solid and secure I feel generally.

This article holds so much gold, you share so much lived experience with us Rachel. We really should be taught about poverty consciousness at school that way we can challenge belief systems that do not evolve us.

Brilliant Rachel, this is true success to me. I was having a similar conversation with someone the other day, how we can set ourselves up when our underlying core beliefs are not addressed. From a faulty foundation we may have what appears to be success yet it it is in truth only a superficial relief for a short time. Appreciation for us builds appreciation for others.

I’ve come back to read this blog again today and no doubt I have possibly said the same thing before. Also I hope to see you writing more about this Rachel. This is an issue for a lot of people including me and I do find money at times and the pressure I put on myself around it very weighty. Here we have an answer that I must admit I just can’t grab as yet. I see what you are saying and can read it but can’t quite touch it. I do know from experience and trust that the appreciation for being first rather than the chasing of something to give me what I need as a reward ring true. I can see also that there is more work to be done here for me as well.

I agree Raymond, let’s explore this topic more, as there is so much truth that Rachel shares here, and yet there is a greater learning for us all that can open up from this. Our backgrounds may all be different, yet there is a commonality in the themes that we struggle with or perceive to struggle with…We know and understand that it is about self appreciation first, and allowing things to unfold from there…so bring it on I say, let the learning begin/continue and unfold from here.

For the last few years now I have consistently been finding money on the street and for the majority of that time I have been confused as to why this keeps occurring. In the last few days I came to understand that it happens whenever I focus on the riches within me or when appreciating another or life in general. When I focus on the richness within the riches come to me without even trying. Whereas if I purposefully stare at the floor trying to find money I find nothing, never ever, and sometimes I do catch myself acting like a bird attracted to a glint of something shiny to find that it’s a bottle cap or something. But righting that now it’s showing me where I drop the focus of that inner wealth. No big deal but great to take notice of.

Thank you Rachel Hall – this is a gorgeous blog to read – honest, profound and deeply inspiring. The poverty consciousness has long tendrils that are continually seeking to hook us back into a consciousness of being lesser and measuring all that we do by money, rather than celebrating and joy-fully living the truth of BEING who we are (Love).
“I had been measuring my worth and success against a profit and loss statement and not on who I am and what I offered to my patients and the people around me”.

The more I relax and surrender to the bigger plan the more I trust and in doing so the more of what I need comes, this is the opposite to when I stress and spend unnecessary energy worrying about money. Being aware of my situation and being organised is paramount to keeping my finances in check.

I love what you have shared here Rachel, and in so many ways I too can relate to the poverty mentality that can be so pervasive. You could say that my family too had a relatively low income when I was growing up, but then when my father got a better job, things did financially shift significantly. However, despite this shift, it seemed to me that my parents stayed in the mentality of it perhaps not lasting, and so it seemed that they always played it safe, always stayed with the cheaper options with things, just in case there was not going to be enough money for basics like food and rent. And so I too found myself adopting this in my life, and feel like it is still a bit of an ongoing theme that I need to let go of.
And so what you have shared here below, absolutely makes sense:

“When you stop focussing on money and start enjoying what you do, the rewards start to flow as a by-product of appreciating oneself – and one of these is more income.

But the ‘rewards’ for me go much deeper than this – I have more fun with my patients, my team and family and have found a renewed passion and appreciation for my profession. And most significantly, I no longer feel like I carry the dental practice like a dead-weight around my neck.”

It is about not letting ourselves be conditioned by society or finances, and it is all about feeling our self worth and valuing who we are and what we bring as a service to our community! Thanks Rachel!

You give a great sense in this blog of what it feels like to strive for and to achieve material wealth without having a living inner abundance to match it. I can not only relate to this, but I can see this also playing out in many parts of society today, where the goal is material perfection, when all the while there is divine love inside that is so and completely beyond this earth.

I have noticed that there is a link between self-worth and how we are with money. The less self-worth I had the less I felt I was worth spending money on even though I could afford it. This was an outward expression of being less that reflected my inner view of myself. Equally, with a lack of self-worth came a withdrawal and a lack of commitment to work. As I have developed greater self-worth and more commitment to work my income has also increased and so to with it the joy of not holding back spending if it feels true.

I know exactly what you mean Rachel the same has happened for me. Something I found is that I need to continue to appreciate quite how amazing I am otherwise it is all too easy to suddenly have everything you have ever wanted and more and then throw it all away because we feel we do not deserve it or are not ready for it – which is rubbish because nothing is before us that we are not already equipped to deal with.

It is amazing to see how appreciation for oneself can dramatically alter how we connect and move throughout our days. I have found its the moments in which we take stock and appreciate who we are that really can consistently change our movements thereafter that really alter our way of life tenfold.

There is so much we attach to money, our self worth being one of them. What you have shared here Rachel, I am sure many people can relate to, I know that I can. That we place so much importance on money, how much we have, how much we don’t have and feeling less than or not ok about ourselves either way. For me I have always been in good jobs so did not have to ‘struggle’ so to speak for money, but it wasn’t until I lost my job a few years back, that I realised the hold money had over me or I allowed it to. Not as much these days, but I can feel there is still an attachment to it. So you blog has been very helpful indeed.

One of the keys that is brought forward here is appreciation, the key to our well-being that needs to be written and talked about, brought to the fore, as in this world of competition, it is certainly not something that is fostered and nurtured, and indeed appreciated.

Awesome blog Rachel Hall, thank you for sharing this as this is something I am coming to terms with in a slightly different way. More of having been irresponsible with finances and keeping myself in a state of struggle rather than allowing things to flourish and be more responsible and accountable.

This is a great blog to read as I worry about money. We often make this our sole focus instead of looking at how we live or feel about our work or working. This is something I need to go away and look at and also work on my budget which my partner supported me with today by making a simple excel spreadsheet to calculate my monthly and weekly expenditure and income .

Its only in the last few years that I have learnt to live within my means meaning for many years I spent to much of what I had not got! Knowing what I have got now and only spending within that brings such clarity and simplicity.

Rachel, you certainly struck gold when you found that financial advisor that you went to. I would say that they offered you not just financial advise but pure love as love is a very beholding energy and clearly that person was able to see you for the person that you are and truly behold you so you could come to a true understanding of what was going on for you. This is true healing and beautiful to know that there are financial advisors like that around.

Rachel it was great to read your blog again, and as I read it this sentence jumped out at me “My struggle with money was a reflection of my internal struggle to be enough, and to be more. But the reality was and is that I am enough just as I am. And that my wealth comes from inside of me and the loving life that I choose to live every day. ” This awareness is great, its so true the wealth comes from within and it really is about appreciating oneself and the value of what one brings.

Something I find fascinating is that if I worry about money there is never enough whereas when I simply just be and get on with what needs to be done there is ample. It reflects on life for me if I worry about things – either nothing changes or they get worse but if I get on with things then everything changes. I love how everything can reflect something to us if we choose to be open to it.

Making decisions from a scarcity point of view will always come back to haunt you and usually cost you a lot more, my husband and I recently discovered this when we did something just purely from a financial point of view instead of reading and discerning the situation.

I can so relate to feeling this way about money! It is so constricting and in contrast to using it as a celebration of who I am already, I have seen it as a resource that is used to make life work. Much like how I have seen my work and my life actually. I have seen it as something that has to be done with a list of things to do instead of a constant joy of me bringing me the glorious Josh to everything I do.

I still have this struggle mentality and that I will only just have enough to make ends meet. I have lived like this when my salary was quite high and when it has dropped back. The way I am with it didn’t change- when I look back I can see choices I could have made to be in a much better financial position than I am now- but I had chosen to indulge with my money rather than make responsible choices.

This blog is a real gem, Rachel … knowing the wealth inside, when we appreciate ourselves truly for who we are, there is less push and less need in how we present ourselves and so of course people are different in how they respond, hence your patients choosing the best outcomes, as they’d felt in you the dedication and way you were settled in yourself. A very beautiful reminder for me today to appreciate all of me, thank you.

I have found that if I have an attachment to an outcome that is based on money then everything stops flowing and my life starts to get complicated and issues arise that weren’t there initially. If I make my life about people and not money then money and life start to flow again.

I could relate to growing up with the poverty mentality. I can remember the knowing of what a quality item felt like and the awful feeling of ending up with a cheap copy. The worst feeling of all I suspect was the lack of worth that was behind the purchase of the cheap copy and the feeling of being made to feel guilty for wanting to choose quality. Although everything in me said this wasn’t the way to be, I still managed to take on some of the beliefs. As an adult I am much more honouring of the feeling of what I need to buy to support me in life. I love it when I purchase things not from a neediness or desire but from a knowing of my worth and a strong ‘yes’ feeling.

Hi Rachel – this is a really great blog, if i am totally honest I have a poverty mentality too, I really struggle with money and worry about it all the time, it gets me quite down at times and sad too. Don’t get me wrong I have money to live for the basics, but not a flow and being able to save – part of that is my lack of commitment to life – and flitting about low paid jobs for many years that cave me no financial security or stability. That has changed its going back to uni, returning and now working in a great and permanent job which I love, but there is always the daily worry financially. This is something many people world wide experience, at any age. For example I know people of an older generation who worry about finances and struggle – this keeps them awake at night and affects their relationships, what they do, their bodies, health and wellbeing. Money is a sore spot for many to speak about or admit they have issues here. I for now really want to heal this. But I know it’s not about the money first, it’s looking at my own lack of self worth.

Brilliant Rachel. What I hear you say is that we appreciate it is like we create a stop moment where instead of spending or accumulating money we take stock of our natural wealth. When we celebrate and commemorate the richness of our current life, where we have come from and who we are in ourselves, it’s like it provides a foundation for more to come in a similar light. This confirms what we know is true and what is right, and stops us casually chucking our energy and earnings away.

Your blog Rachel, clarifies to me that when we connect with that richness within this will be reflected on the outside, but not only money wise but also in the more enriching human values that are enjoyment of life and intimate joyful relationships we build with the people we are with.

I am starting to realise wealth is not about money but more about how we truly feel, how we value ourselves and each other. Like you shared Rachel, when we start to enjoy our work the focus and stress around money is not there, but instead replaced by joy and quality in all that we do.

Thanks for sharing Rachel, this poverty mentality, hmm its so crippling. The incessant anxiousness that comes with believing we need more money to be happy or have nice things, or have security doesn’t serve us, but neither does being irresponsible with money and living with not enough – depriving ourselves. I have found an approach that is working lately, focus on the things like my well being, my relationships, my commitment to work and the finances are starting to even out.

One of the points that I appreciate you sharing is that even though your situation had changed and you had a lot of money in the bank you were still living in the poverty mentality. Its interesting how we can change something yet still not fully let go but continue to hold ourselves to what has been- I love what you have shared on this.

Worrying about if I’m good enough at work to retain the job (what if a complaint’s made against me or something happens and I lose my job?) doesn’t have me enjoying life! What if I let go of the protection and allowed myself to feel my worth? what if being myself is enough and more, and I began to really appreciate what I bring?

Iinheriting money is an interesting situation. Do we accept and appreciate it in full or do we feel that because we haven’t earned it directly, as in at our workplace, that we feel we don’t really deserve it and thus treat it, and ourselves, differently?

Ah brilliant Rachel – when we focus on the figures only we certainly miss out on what life is about. For as you show in seeing the complete beauty and abundancy of us, and what we bring to others, there’s a sense of richness that means that money, wealth and support can’t help but flow. This way of having money and more so true value in yourself can seem alien at first. For me it’s not so much where I grew up but the attitude of traditional religion, that got me, it seems to infer that you are bad if you think to well of yourself and your wealth always comes at the expense of someone else – this could not be further from the truth, it’s just a big fat lie. Time to invest in loving and appreciating ourselves.

It is all about appreciating what we bring and by doing this it will be confirmed in all kind of ways. When I focus on what goes wrong, the thoughts that come in are never uplifting but always trying to tell me I am not enough. Recently I started in a new job and this old pattern was there again. Once more it asks me to claim my value and just work in the quality I know I am and then I experience such a joy in working with clients and colleagues.

I have lived most of my life in the hand to mouth mode of living, strangely I never felt poor as there was always enough money for the essentials each week, I remember having a session one day and realising that I did have a poverty consciousness in the sense that I was not open for more coming in to my life. Since then slowly my financial situation has improved since I have opened up to accepting abundance.

The shift in your life once you choose to honour yourself and appreciate all you bring is amazing. This supports loving and caring for ourselves and bringing this to everything we do – the rest looks after itself. Thanks Rachel.

This blog reveals to me how wealth can have many masks and which mask you continue to choose to wear in your everyday life is determined by our upbringing and the belief systems that comes alongside, and adding to this flavour the belief about money.

This blog unearthed something I was harbouring, soon as I read ‘Birmingham’ I associated it with poverty as I grew up around this image projected by others!

Isn’t it amazing how even a city has wealth attached to it. When people say they are from London or Paris or New York or even Sydney etc. there is an automatic association that they are wealthy and yet it’s just a name, no more than this.

There is definitely a strong belief in our society that your worth is defined by how wealthy you are and how many assets you own as you have revealed here in your candid personal story Rachel, but as you also say, our worth is who we are and our relationships far more than it is what we own or how much cash we have in the bank.